The consideration, that in our own language, no work existed on the subject of Medical Jurisprudence, as it relates solely to Insanity, urged me to the present performance. Previously to this undertaking manifold impediments were foreseen, and these difficulties have augmented in every page of its progress:—the apprehensions from this arduous attempt, have, however, been mitigated by the consoling reflection, that in a novel enterprize criticism would be tempered with candour.

The following sheets are addressed to the readers of different pursuits, law and medicine:—from the latter, I have heretofore experienced much indulgence and encouragement, when the result of my professional labours has been submitted to their judgment:[i:A]—to the former I am little known: and here feel it necessary, by a distinct avowal, to assert that I have in no manner presumed to encroach on their province. Although the title may seem to imply an incorporation of the two sciences, yet it is not to be considered as the combination of definite proportions of legal and medical knowledge. It has been modestly conceived that the general phenomena of disordered intellect, and the criteria of insanity, would not be unacceptable to the advocate; who might thereby become enabled to adapt the facts in nature to the scale of justice. Furnished with such information, he will be instructed to institute appropriate enquiries for the discovery of truth, and to ascertain what is the duty of the medical evidence to supply:—so that he may not be pressed beyond his resources, nor the depths of his intelligence be left unsounded. On the practitioner of my own profession I have ventured to impress the importance and moral obligation of his evidence before the tribunal of justice, and to enforce, that the value of medical opinion becomes enhanced by perspicuity of conveyance, and derives authority from the exposure of its foundations. It has likewise been my object, to direct his attention to those leading points which usually constitute the subjects of his deposition, or are presented for his solution during the course of legal examination.

The technical language of the learned professions is commonly inveloped in mysterious obscurity:—persons for the most part acquire names without investigating their force and legitimate import; and currently employ them rather from habit than comprehension: it has therefore been my anxious endeavour to scrutinize words of important meaning; and to convey the manifestations of mind and the symptoms of disease, by expressions generally understood, and emancipated from the thraldom of professional nomenclature.

To complete the plan I originally projected, there still remains to submit to the notice of the public, “The consideration of insanity in a political view,” enquiring how far human wisdom, properly directed, might become the instrument to diminish this severe and encreasing affliction,—and especially to point out the desiderata for a bill to protect the insane, and regulate the receptacles wherein they may be confined. Notwithstanding the heterogeneous mass which has been authoritatively diffused on this important subject, the necessary materials have not yet been collected. Those who will probably attempt to frame this measure, have much to learn, and more to dismiss. The production of a wise and salutary bill requires ample research and temperate reflection: and therefore can never be the offspring of minds void of information, and saturated with prejudice. As Insanity is a disease, by the unanimous concurrence of physicians, most certainly to be remedied at the commencement of its attack: it ought to be a leading object with those who possess the power to legislate, to afford every facility to the medical attendant, that he may have an early access to the treatment of this malady, for the restoration of the patient, and for the security of the public. But if the practitioner is to be pinioned by threats, or deterred by obloquy—if his skill is to be circumscribed by ignorance, and his experience subjected to wild hypothesis, and baseless conjecture; then, the enactment will be oppressive in its operation, and incompetent to meet the exigences of intellectual calamity—a bill, calculated to confirm and aggravate the horrors of madness—to invite suicide, and multiply murder.

JOHN HASLAM.

1st December, 1817,
51, Frith Street, Soho Square.