Hallucination

Defined in 6 dictionaries — Cyclopedic (1922), Ballentine's (1916), Bouvier (1914), Black's (1910), Black's (1891), Anderson (1889)

The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary

Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922

In medical jurisprudence. A species of mania by which an idea reproduced by the memory is associated and embodied by the imagination. This state of mind is sometimes called "delusion," or "waking dreams." An attempt has been made to distinguish "hallucinations" from "illusions." The former are said to be dependent on the state of the intellectual organs, and the latter on that of those of sense. Ray, Med. Jur. § 99; 1 Beck, Med. Jur. 538, note. An instance is given of a temporary hallucination in the celebrated Ben Johnson, the poet. He told a friend of his that he had spent many a night in looking at his great toe, about which he had seen Turks and Tartars, Romans and Carthaginians, fight, in his imagination. 1 Colly. Lun. 34. If, instead of being temporary, this affection of his mind had been permanent, he would doubtless have been considered insane. See, on the subject of spectral illusions, Hibbert, Alderson, and Farrar's Essays; Scott on Demonology, etc.; 3 Bostock, Physiology, 91, 161; 1 Esquirol, Maladies Mentales, 159.

Ballentine's Law Dictionary

James A. Ballentine · 1916

An error of eyesight, hearing or other of the senses. See 168 N. Y. 19, fiO N. E. 1057. Not insanity. See 64 Vt. 233, 24 Atl. 253.

Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia

John Bouvier; revised by Francis Rawle · 1914

In Medical Jurisprudence. The perception by any of the senses of an object which has no existence. The conscious recognition of a sensation of sight, hearing, feeling, taste, or smell which is not due to any impulse received by the perceptive apparatus from without, but arises within the perceptive apparatus itself. A false perception in contradistinction to a delusion or false belief. Wood, Am. Text-Book of Med. An error, a blunder, a mistake, a fallacy; and when used In describing the condition of a person, does not necessarily carry an imputation of Insanity. Foster’s Ex’rs r. Dickerson, 64 Vt 233, 24 Atl. 253. An instance Is given of a temporary hallucination in the celebrated Ben Jonson» the poet He told a friend of his that he had spent many a night in looking at his great toe, about which he had seen Turks and Tartars, Romans and Carthaginians, light in his imagination. 1 Collin. Lun. 84. If, instead of being temporary, this affection of his mind had been permanent, he would doubtless have been eonsidered insane. See, on the subject of spectral illusions, Hibber, Alderson, and Farrar’s Essays; Scott on Demonology, etc.; 3 Bostock, Physiology M, 161; 1 Bsqulrol, Maladies Mentales 159. See Insanity. church or sepulchre, and were excused from feudal services. Hist. Dunelm. apud Whartonl Ang. Sax. pt 1, p. 749. Especially in the county of Durham, those who held by service of defending the corpse of St Cuthbert Jacob, Law Diet.

Black's Law Dictionary

Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910

In medical jurisprudence. A trick or deceit of the senses; a morbid error either of the sense of sight or that of hearing or possibly of the other senses; a psychological state, such as would be produced naturally by an act of sense-perception, attributed confidently, but mistakenly, to something which has no objective existence ; as, when the patient imagines that he sees an object when there is none or hears a voice or other sound when nothing strikes his ear. See Staples v. Wellington, 58 Me. 459; Foster v. Dickerson, 64 Vt. 233, 24 Atl. 257; McNett v. Co.oper (C. Ct) 13 Fed. 590; Pcople v. Krist, 168 N. Y. 19, 60 N. E. 1057. Hallucination does not by itself constitute insanity, though it may be evidence of it or a sign of its approach. It is to be distinguished from "delusion" in this, that the latter is a fixed and irrational belief in the existence of a fact or state of facte, not cognizable through the senses, but to be determined by the faculties of reason, memory, judgment, and the like ; while hallucination is a belief in the existence of an external object, perceptible by the senses, but having no real existence; or, in so far as a delusion may relate to an external object, it is an irrational belief as to the character, nature, or appearance of something which really exists and affects the senses. For example, if a man should believe that he saw his right hand in its proper place, after it had been amputated, it would be an hallucination; but if he believed that his right hand was made of glass, it would be a delusion. In other words, in the case of hallucination, the senses betrav the mind, while in the case of delusion, the senses act normally, but their evidence is rejected by the mind on account of the existence of an ir-rationni belief formed independently of them. They are further distinguished by the fact that hallucinations may be observed and studied by the subject himself and traced to their causes, or may be corrected by reasoning or argument, while a delusion is an, unconscious error, but so fixed and unchangeable that the patient cannot be reasoned out of it Hallucination is also to be distinguished from "illusion," the latter term being appropriate to describe a perverted or distorted or wholly mistaken impression in the mind, derived from a true act of sense-perception, stimulated by a real external object, but modified by the imagination of the subject; while, in the case of hallucination, as abave stated, there la no objective reality to correspond with the imagined perception.

A Dictionary of Law

Henry Campbell Black · 1891

In medical jurisprudence. <A species of mania; the percepternal cause, arising from disorder of the hervous system; delusion, Webster,

A Dictionary of Law

William C. Anderson · 1889

See Insanity.