d, and that he did
not know at the time of committing the crime that the offence was
against the laws of _God_ and _nature_.

Lunatics are competent witnesses in relation to testimony, as in
relation to crime, if they understand the nature of an oath and the
character of the proceedings in which they are engaged. The judge, as in
the case of children, examines the lunatic tendered as a witness as to
his knowledge of the nature and obligation of an oath, and, if
satisfied, he allows him to be sworn.

A person, if suffering from such a state of mental unsoundness as to be
unable to take care of his property, may be placed under the care of the
Court of Chancery. The Court then administers his property, and
otherwise allows him entire freedom of action.

With regard to the care of lunatics, no person is allowed to receive
more than one lunatic into his house unless such house is licensed and
the proper certificates have been signed. One patient may be taken
without the house being licensed, but the usual certificates must in all
cases be signed, and the Lunacy Commissioners communicated with. If a
person receives another not of unsound mind into his house, and such
person becomes subsequently insane, the person so keeping him renders
himself liable to heavy penalties, unless the legal certificates are at
once procured and the Commissioners of Lunacy communicated with.

At common law it appears that a lunatic cannot be placed in an asylum
unless dangerous to himself or to others, but under the Lunacy Acts the
placing of a madman in an asylum is considered as a part of the
treatment with a view to the cure of the patient.

XLI.--IDIOCY, IMBECILITY, CRETINISM

=Idiocy= is not a disease, but a congenital condition in which the
intellectual faculties are either never manifested or have not been
sufficiently developed to enable the idiot to acquire an amount of
knowledge equal to that acquired by other persons of his own age and in
similar circumstances with himself. Idiots, as a rule, are deformed in
body as well as deficient in mind. Their heads are generally small and
badly-shaped, and their features ill-formed and distorted. The teeth are
few in number and very irregular. The hard palate has a very deep arch,
or may even be cleft. The complexion is sallow and unhealthy, the limbs
imperfectly developed, and the gait is awkward, shambling, and unsteady.
In his legal relations an absolute idiot is civilly disabled