Minor Offences. —In theft and other minor offences, in England, committed in alcoholism, intoxication and delirium tremens have been accepted as an answer in some cases, while many such offenders have been liberated, to come up on their own recognizances with a limited time if called on, on the understanding that they would forthwith go to a Home for Inebriates.
Inebriety is a disease of the brain, a form of insanity wholly dominating the volition, and beyond the power of the victim to control. Clark Bell (Medico Legal Jour., Dec., '92).
The affirmation of irresponsibility should involve prolonged commitment to an insane asylum. Motet and Vidal (Quarterly Jour. of Inebriety, Jan., '93).
The knowledge of right and wrong may exist without the power of discrimi nating between the two. T. L. Wright (Quarterly Jour. of Inebriety, Jan., '93).
Criminal acts come from inability to understand the relation of surroundings, and to adjust the conduct to the vary ing conditions of life. The criminal acts of the inebriate spring from this con fusion of senses and judgment. This shows the irresponsibility of inebriates. T. D. Crothers (Quarterly Jour. of Ine briety, Jan., '93).
At meetings of creditors, by the au thor's advice, legal advisers have re frained from calling as witnesses persons whose brains had been so affected by intoxicants as to dim the perception of truth and render their evidence value less. Norman Kerr ("Inebriety," third edition).
By existing British law, habitual drunkenness, as such, forms no defense, either in civil or criminal cases, except in so far as it may be admissible as evi dence with a view to prove facts which can be construed as establishing legal incapacity or insanity. J. R. Mcllraith (Proceedings of the Soc. for the Study of Inebriety, Aug., '93).
Statistics based on 1500 cases (1200 men and 300 women) of alcoholic in sanity having required entrance into an asylum show that more than two-fifths of delirious alcoholic patients had com mitted crimes or misdemeanors. Of these
acts the most frequent are those directed against the life, and especially attempts of suicide. Serra (Paris Thesis, '96).
In some of the more recent trials certain diseased inebriate mental states, short of what is generally regarded legally as insanity, have granted exemp tion from responsibility. This recogni tion of such abnormal mind conditions as a legal answer has, however, had to be entered as a plea of insanity and not inebriety. It is greatly to be desired, in the interests alike of equity and justice, that certain abnormal, inebriate, disor dered mental states should be accepted as a valid plea altogether from the stand point of insanity. The alternative would be the classification of such pathological states of mind as a variety of mental unsoundness, as in Belgian law. The former method of a distinct, independ ent, legal recognition is, however, pref erable, if for no other reason than that the inebriate should not be associated in treatment with the insane.
On the first of January, 1900, all the German States will have a common civil law. The sixth paragraph of the new Code runs thus: The Interdicted can be: 1. He or she who, in consequence of mental insanity or mental weakness, can not provide for his or her affairs.
2. He or she who brings himself or his family into the danger of need by prodi gality.
3. He or she who, in consequence of inebriety, cannot provide for his affairs, or brings himself or his family into the danger of need or endangers the safety of others.
The interdiction is to be revoked as soon as the reason for interdiction ceases to exist. William Bode (Proceed. of the Soc. for the Study of Inebriety, Nov., '97).