contra-distinguished, and under such defect the advantages of
introducing a new and undefined term are not apparent. For what purpose
"those who had the administration of justice in this department thought
themselves at liberty" so to act, is not explained: but your Lordship
having adopted such practice, and highly commended the authority from
whence it has been derived, can, doubtless, afford the necessary
elucidation.

For those venerable authorities of the law, who have preceded your
Lordship in this department of the administration of justice, I feel
impressed with the utmost deference and respect; and these grateful
sentiments will be rendered more intense whenever their reasons are
promulgated. Medical practitioners, who have devoted their lives to the
consideration and treatment of insanity, are disposed to doubt
concerning the existence of any intrinsic or positive unsoundness of
mind, as contra-distinguished from idiotcy and lunacy. Those who have
accumulated the largest sum of experience in disorders of the intellect,
have viewed the various forms under which they are manifested, as
equally conducing to render an individual incapable of conducting
himself and managing his affairs, whether the mental affection be termed
madness, melancholy, insanity, mental derangement, non compos mentis,
idiotcy, or lunacy; and, if it were necessary, a more ample catalogue
might be introduced. Physicians may, perhaps, be advantageously
occupied in establishing nice shades of difference in the symptoms of
mental disorder; and, if we do not already possess sufficient, may
create new terms expressive of these modifications: and such extension
of the nosological volume may have its practical utility: but the lawyer
can have no interest in such speculations, he only looks to the medical
evidence to demonstrate the existence of that _morbid_ condition of
intellect that renders the individual incompetent to conduct himself in
society, and to manage his affairs.

Speaking generally, the state of idiotcy is well understood, although
cases of an intricate nature may occasionally occur: but there is
considerable probability, that the interpretation that has adhered to
the term lunacy, more especially in the estimate of the lawyer, has been
the source of considerable error, and has also tended to introduce the
middle and undefined epithet of unsoundness. The old physicians, for
whom modern practitioners entertain less reverence than lawy