A LETTER
TO
_THE LORD CHANCELLOR_.
A
LETTER
TO
THE RIGHT HONORABLE
THE
LORD CHANCELLOR,
ON THE
NATURE AND INTERPRETATION
OF
UNSOUNDNESS OF MIND,
AND
_IMBECILITY OF INTELLECT_.
BY
JOHN HASLAM, M.D.
LATE OF PEMBROKE HALL, CAMBRIDGE.
_LONDON:_
PUBLISHED BY R. HUNTER,
ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD.
***
1823.
PRINTED BY G. HAYDEN,
Little College Street, Westminster.
A LETTER.
MY LORD,
THE present address originates in an anxious wish for the advancement of medical knowledge, where it is connected with those maladies of the human mind, that are referable to the court, wherein your Lordship has so long administered impartial justice. The disorders which affect the body are, in general, the exclusive province of the medical practitioner; but, by a wise provision, that has descended to us from the enlightened nations of antiquity, the law has considered those persons, whose intellectual derangement rendered them inadequate to the governance of themselves in society, or incapable of managing their affairs, entitled to its special protection. If your Lordship should feel surprized at this communication, or deem my conduct presumptuous, the thirst of information on an important subject is my only apology; and I have sought to allay it in the pure stream that issues from the fountain-head, rather than from subordinate channels or distant distributions. Although personally a stranger to your Lordship, nearly thirty years of my life have been devoted to the investigation and treatment of insanity: of which more than twenty have been professionally passed in the largest receptacle for lunatics;--and the press has diffused, in several publications, my opinions and experience concerning the human mind, both in its sound state and morbid condition.
The medical profession, of which I am an humble member, entertains very different notions concerning the nature of UNSOUNDNESS of mind, and IMBECILITY of intellect;--and this difference of opinion has been displayed on many solemn occasions, where medical testimony has been deposed.
If
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: A Letter to the Right Honorable the Lord Chancello
- 2: The individual had been an idiot ex nativitate
- 3: The introduction of the term unsoundness
- 4: Which is neither idiotcy nor lunacy
- 5: As contra distinguished from idiotcy and lunacy
- 6: Whose state is contra distinguished from lunacy
- 7: Without any resulting UNSOUNDNESS
- 8: All the cases decide that mere imbecility will not do
- 9: To explain the nature of unsoundness
- 10: With the citation of this memorable sentence