Wild Beasts and Idle Humours: Legal Insanity and the Finding of Fault

Extract

So fearfully and wonderfully are we made, so infinitely subtle is the spiritual part of our being, so difficult is it to trace with accuracy the effect of diseased intellect upon human action, that I may appeal to all who hear me, whether there are any causes more difficult, or which, indeed, so often confound the learning of the judges themselves, as when insanity, or the the effects and consequences of insanity, become the subjects of legal consideration and judgment. (From Thomas Erskine's address to the jury in Rex v. Hadfield)