Apoplexy

In Medical Jurisprudence. The group of symptoms arising from rupture of a minute artery and consequent hemorrhage into the substance of the brain or from the lodgment of a minute clot in one of the cerebral arteries. The symptoms consist usually of sudden loss of consciousness, muscular relaxation, lividity of the face and slow stertorous respiration, lasting from a few hours to several days. Death frequently ensues. If consciousness returns, there is found paralysis of some of the voluntary muscles, very frequently of the muscles of the face, arm, and leg upon one side, giving the symptom of hemiplegia. There is usually more or less mental impairment. The mental impairment presents no uniform characters, but varies indefinitely, in extent and severity, from a little failure of memory, to an entire abolition of all the intellectual faculties. The power of speech is usually more or less affected; it may be a slight difficulty of utterance, or an inability to remember certain words or parts of words, or an entire loss of the power of articulation. This feature may arise from two different causes— either from a loss of the power of language, or a loss of power in the muscles of the larynx. This fact must be borne in mind by the medical jurist, and there can be little difficulty in distinguishing between them. In the latter, the patient is as capable as ever of reading, writing, or understanding spoken language. In the former, he is unable to communicate his thoughts by writing, beperceptive powers. This affection of the faculty of language Is manifested In various ways. One person loses all recollection of the names of persons and things, while other parts of speech are still at command. Another forgets everything but substantives, and only those which express some mental quality or abstract idea. Another loses the memory of all words but yes or no. In these cases the patient Is able to repeat the words on hearing them pronounced, but, after a second or third repetition, loses them altogether. See Aphasia. Wills and contracts are not unfrequently made in that equivocal condition of mind which sometimes follows an attack of apoplexy or paralysis; and their validity is contested on the score of mental incompetency. In cases of this kind there are, generally, two questions at issue, viz., the absolute amount of mental impairment, and the degree of foreign influence exerted upon the party. They cannot be considered independently of each other. Neither of them alone might be sufficient to invalidate an act, while together, even in a much smaller degree, they would have this effect. In testing the mental capacity of paralytics, reference should be had to the nature of the act in question. The question is not, had the testator sufficient capacity to make a will? but, had he sufficient capacity to make the will in dispute? A capacity which might be quite adequate to a distribution of a little personal property among a few near relatives would be just as clearly inadequate to the disposition of a large estate among a host of relatives and friends possessing very unequal claims upon the testator's bounty. Here, as in other mental conditions, all that is required is mind sufficient for the purpose, neither more nor less. See Dementia; Delirium; Imbecility; Mania. In order to arrive at correct conclusions on this point, we must be careful, among other things, not to confound the power to appreciate the terms of a proposition with the power to discern its relations and consequences. In testing the mental capacity of one who has lost the power of speech, it is always difficult, and often impossible, to arrive at correct results. If the person is able and willing to communicate his thoughts in writing, his mental capacity may be clearly revealed. If not disposed to write, he may communicate by constructing words and sentences by the help of a dictionary or block letters. Failing in this, the only other intellectual manifestation possible is the expression of assent or dissent by signs to propositions made by others. Any of these means of communication, other than that of writing, must leave us much in the dark respecting the amount of intellect possessed by the party. If the act in question is complicated in its relations, if it is unreasonable in its dispositions, if it bears the slightest trace of power of assenting or dissenting, it must always be impossible to decide whether this not refer to the terms rather merits of the proposition; and, the:' an act which bears no i lence than this of the will of the person certainly ought not to be established. B< 3ides, it must be considered that a will drawn up In Oils ner is, actually, not the will of the since every disposition has originated in the minds of others; Ray, Med. Jur. phenomena and legal consequences of paralytic affections are extensively discussed in Clark v. Fisher, 1 Paige (N. Y.) 171. 1. Dec. 402; 1 Hagg. BccL 502,."77; -J. id. 84; 1 Curt. Eccl. 7S2; Parish Will Case, 4 vols. N. Y. 1S5S. And see Death; Insanity.

In medical jurisprudence. Tho failure of consciousness and suspension of yoluntary motion from suspension of the functions of the cerebrum.