y to the clearly
insane. The border-line is impossible to find, and many cases are so
difficult to classify that there is often a doubt as to where the given
patient belongs. In times when the crowd is mad with the mob psychology
of hatred, people are impatient of insanity and do not care whether the
accused was sane or not at the time of the commission of the act. Many
insane are put to death or sentenced to long terms of punishments. Jails
and other penal institutions are constantly sorting their inmates and
finding many who were clearly insane at the time their sentences began.

Society is beginning to find out that even where there is no marked
insanity, many are so near idiocy that they cannot fairly be held
responsible for their acts. The line here is just as vague and uncertain
as with the insane. Thus far, society has not provided adequate
protection for the public against this class; neither has it properly
cared for these unfortunates. It has simply excused their conduct,
except in cases where some act is so shocking that it arouses special
hatred, and then it freely declares that it makes no difference whether
the accused is a defective or not; he is of no value to the world and
should die. Many of this class are put to death. I am inclined to think
that most of those executed are either insane or serious defectives; and
those who say that such people are of no value are probably right. It is
perhaps equally true that few if any are of value, for when value is
considered we are met with the question: "Value to whom, or for what?"
All you can say of any one is that he wishes to live, and has the same
inherent instincts and emotions toward life as are common to all other
men.

Even the legal tests as to insanity and feeble-mindedness are neither
logical nor humane. Often the definition is given by courts that if one
is able to distinguish between right and wrong, he is sane within the
meaning of the law. This definition of insanity is utterly unscientific.
If the insane or the defective above an idiot is questioned specifically
whether certain distinct things are right or wrong, he can generally
give the conventional classification. Often he can tell much better than
the intelligent man, for he has been arbitrarily taught the things that
are right and wrong and has not the originality or ability to inquire
whether the classification is right or how far circumstances and
conditions determine right and wrong.