sane are at least on the high road to
mental insanity (p. 228). Moral insanity is known to exist when there is
a sudden change of character which can have no other source than bodily
disease; as when a most honest man becomes of a sudden an habitual
thief, a decent man openly profane, a miser becomes extravagantly
liberal, an affectionate father a very tyrant to his children, without
any traceable causes for such transformation. The disease is made more
manifest if such a sudden change is preceded by certain physical
conditions, such as epilepsy, hereditary taint, suicidal attempts, "the
insane temperament," as it is called, and other influences which are to
be taken into consideration.

If ever you be summoned, gentlemen, to testify or pronounce on a
person's insane condition, let me give you one piece of advice which may
spare you much unpleasantness: be unusually cautious of what you say.
If you appear as an expert or a witness, and you make a mistake
unfavorable to the patient, he will be your enemy for life; even he may
at times recover damages for libel. If he is really crazy, he may be all
the more dangerous. Do your duty, of course, as an honest man must
always do; but do it very prudently.

Dr. Bauduy is very emphatic on the assertion that moral insanity is not
moral depravity. He is perfectly right; yet we must not forget that
moral depravity is often screened before the courts by the plea of
insanity. When a man of bad antecedents commits a crime, and is known to
have been sane just before and after the deed, he ought not to be
excused on the plea that he may have been insane at the moment when he
committed the act; there is no reason for such a plea. And with the
victims of kleptomania, dipsomania, and other moral manias, it is well
known that a sound whipping will often stop the nuisance. The rod for
the juvenile offender, and the whipping-post for adults, would cure many
a moral leper and be a strong protection for society at large,
especially if applied before bad habits freely indulged have demoralized
the person beyond the usual limits. All of us have our passions; they
are an essential part of our nature and even an indispensable part. But
they should be controlled by reason and will, whereas they are often
indulged with guilty weakness. They are much strengthened by indulgence,
especially in those predisposed to certain vices by hereditary
transmission. No doubt some children have worse passions to c