Insanity

med. jur. is a con. tinued impetuosity of thought, which totally unfits a man for judging and acting with the composure requisite for the maintenance of the social relations of life. Various other definitions of this state have been given, but perhaps the subject is not susceptible of any satisfactory definition, which shall, with precision, include all cases of insanity, and exclude all others. It may be considered ina threefold point of view: 1, a chronic disease, manifested by deviations from the healthy and natural state of the mind, such deviations consisting ina morbid perversion of the feelings, affections and habits; 2, disturbances of the intellectual faculties, under the influence of which the understanding becomes susceptible of hallucinations or erroneous impressions of a particular kind; 3, a state of mental incoherence or constant hu and confusion of thought.

Cyclop. Practical Medecine, h. t.; Brewster’s Encyclopedia, h. t.; Observations on the Deranged Manifestations of the Mind, or Insanity, 71,72; Merl. Répert. mots Démence, Folie, Imbécilité.

Insanity is an excuse for the commission of those acts which in others would be crimes, because the insane man has no intention; it deprives a man also from entering into any valid contract. Vide Lunacy, Non compos mentis, and Stock on the Law of Non Compotes Mentis.