APOPLEXY AND PARALYSIS. In Medical Jurisprudence. These terms im ply an affection of the brain, and they are supposed to be only different degrees of the same affection.
In the first, the patient is suddenly deprived of all consciousness and sensibility, and so continues for a period varying from a few hours to a few days, when he dies or begins to recover. The recovery, however, may be imperfect, some mental impair ment, er loss of power in the muscles of voluntary motion, remaining for a time, if not for life. Para lysis is a loss of power in some of the voluntary muscles,—those of the face, eyes, arms, or legs. It may be the sequel of apoplexy, or it may be the primary affection, occurring very much like an at tack of apoplexy.
The mental impairment succeeding these dis orders presents no uniform characters, but varies indefinitely, in extent and severity, from a little failure of memory, to an entire abolition of all the intellectual faculties. The power of speech is usu ally more or less affected: it may be a slight diffi culty of utterance, or an inability to remember certain words or parts of words, or an entire loss of the power of articulation. This feature may arise from two different causes,—either from a loss of the power of language, or a loss of power in the muscles of the larynx. This fact must be borne in mind by the medical jurist, and there can be little difficulty in distinguishing between them. In the latter, the patient is as capable as ever of reading, writing, or understanding spoken language. In the former, he is unable to communicate his thoughts by writing, because they are disconnected from their articulate signs. He recognizes their meaning when he sees them, but cannot recall them by any effort of the perceptive powers. This affec tion of the faculty of language is manifested in various ways. One person loses all recollection of the names of persons and things, while other parts of speech are still at command. Another forgets every thing but substantives, and only those which express some mental quality or abstract idea. An other loses the memory of all words but yes or no. In these cases the patient is able to repeat the words on hearing them pronounced, but, after a second or third npaition, loses them altogether.
2. Wills and contracts are not unfrequently made in that equivocal condition of mind which sometimes follows an attack of apoplexy or paralysis; and their validity is contested on the score of mental incompetency. In cases of this kind there are generally two questions at issue, viz., the absolute amount of mental impairment, and the degree of foreign influ ence exerted upon the party. They cannot be considered independently of each other.
Neither of them alone might be sufficient to invalidate an act, while together, even in a much smaller degree, they would have this effect.
3. In testing the mental capacity of para lytics, reference should be had to the nature of the act in question. The question is not, had the testator sufficient capacity to make a will? but, had he sufficient capacity to maks the will in dispute? A capacity which might be quite adequate to a distribution of a little personal property among a few near relatives would be just as clearly inadequate to the disposition of a large estate among a host of relatives and friends possessing very unequal claims upon the testator's bounty. Here, as in other mental conditions, all that is required is mind sufficient for the purpose, neither more nor less. See DEMENTIA; DELIRIUM; IMBECILITY; MANIA. In order to arrive at correct conclusions on this point, we must be careful, among other things, not to con found the power to appreciate the terms of a proposition with the power to discern its re lations and consequences.
4. In testing the mental capacity of one who has lost the power of speech, it is always difficult, and often impossible, to arrive at correct results. If the person is able and willing to communicate his thoughts in wri ting, his mental capacity may be clearly revealed. If not disposed to write, he may communicate by constructing words and sen tences by the help of a dictionary or block letters. Failing in this, the only other in tellectual manifestation possible is the ex pression of assent or dissent by signs tp propositions made by others. Any of these means of communication, other than that of writing, must leave us much in the dark re specting the amount of intellect possessed by the party. If the act in question is compli cated in its relations, if it is unreasonable in its dispositions, if it bears the slightest trace of foreign influence, it cannot but be regarded with suspicion. If the party has only the power of assenting or dissenting, it must always be impossible to decide whether this does not refer to the terms rather than the merits of the proposition ; and, therefore, an act which bears no other evidence than this of the will of the person certainly ought not to be established. Besides, it must be con sidered that a will drawn up in this manner is, actually, not the will of the testator, since every disposition has originated in the minds of others. Ray, Med. Jur. 363. The pheno mena and legal consequences of paralytic affections are extensively discussed in 1 Paige, Ch. N. Y. 171; 1 Hagg. Eccl. 502, 577 ; 2 id. 84; 1 Curt. Eccl. 782 ' . Parish Will Case, 4 vole. N. Y. 1858. And see DEATH ; INSANITY.