The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Letter to the Right Honorable the Lord
Chancellor, on the Nature and Interpretation of Unsoundness of Mind, and Imbecility of Intellect, by John Haslam

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Title: A Letter to the Right Honorable the Lord Chancellor, on the Nature and Interpretation of Unsoundness of Mind, and Imbecility of Intellect

Author: John Haslam

Release Date: January 7, 2009 [EBook #27740]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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A LETTER

TO

_THE LORD CHANCELLOR_.

A

LETTER

TO

THE RIGHT HONORABLE

THE

LORD CHANCELLOR,

ON THE

NATURE AND INTERPRETATION

OF

UNSOUNDNESS OF MIND,

AND

_IMBECILITY OF INTELLECT_.

BY

JOHN HASLAM, M.D.

LATE OF PEMBROKE HALL, CAMBRIDGE.

_LONDON:_

PUBLISHED BY R. HUNTER,

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD.

***

1823.

PRINTED BY G. HAYDEN,

Little College Street, Westminster.

A LETTER.

MY LORD,

THE present address originates in an anxious wish for the advancement of
medical knowledge, where it is connected with those maladies of the
human mind, that are referable to the court, wherein your Lordship has
so long administered impartial justice. The disorders which affect the
body are, in general, the exclusive province of the medical
practitioner; but, by a wise provision, that has descended to us from
the enlightened nations of antiquity, the law has considered those
persons, whose intellectual derangement rendered them inadequate to the
governance of themselves in society, or incapable of managing their
affairs, entitled to its special protection. If your Lordship should
feel surprized at this communication, or deem my conduct presumptuous,
the thirst of information on an important subject is my only apology;
and I have sought to allay it in the pure stream that issues from the
fountain-head, rather than from subordinate channels or distant
distributions. Although persona