10. The American cases have taken the same ground as the English.

11. Wills claimed to have been executed during lucid intervals should be carefully

scrutinized.

12. Suicide is no certain evidence of insanity, at the time.

n. 16. Judge Bradford's commentary on lucid intervals.

13. The etymology of the term would lead us to consider a lucid interval, as a tem

porary restoration.

14. Late decisions in the English Court of Probate.

n. 19. Rule as to payment of costs out of the estate.

§ 14. 1. In mania, but not commonly in the other forms of mental unsoundness, there occur, what have been called, lucid intervals, wherein the subject is capable of executing, understandingly, a will. This is more readily understood by experienced persons, than accurately defined, in terms. The most approved English writer upon medical jurisprudence,1 seems to suppose that there is a well-defined distinction, capable of being observed and maintained, between the mere remissions of mania, and a lucid interval.2 But in his exposition of the subject, either from its innate obscurity, the paucity and imperfection of terms by which to define it, or because the distinction is not well taken, he does not succeed in making it altogether appreciable to common apprehension. We believe that no intelligible definition of the distinction between a remission of the disease, and a lucid interval, can be given, except as it is made to depend upon duration and degree.

2. It is undoubtedly requisite, that the return of soberness and reason, should continue so long as to give some satisfactory assurance, that the person is really in possession of the ordinary

' Dr Taylor, Med. Jur. 651, ed. 1861.

2

66

Taylor, Med. Jur. supra. By a lucid interval we are to understand a temporary cessation of the insanity, or a perfect restoration to reason. This state differs entirely from a remission, in which there is a mere abatement of the symptoms."

This same writer, in his final definition, says, that nothing more is intended, by a lucid interval, than that the patient shall become entirely conscious of his acts, and capacity.

healthy current of thought and memory, so as to be able to rectify his present perceptions and opinions, by his former experience and judgments. And while it is a recognized principle, in the history of insanity, that it is more or less intermittent in its character, the intermissions are so unequal in different cases, and partake so much of the peculiarities, both of the disease, and the constitutional habits of the patient, that it is, as it seems to us, impracticable to lay down any reliable theory upon the subject. The person must have, so far, and for so long a time, regained the possession of reason, as to satisfy the mind that he really did comprehend the act; and that this was the understanding of a healthy mind, and not the mere freak of a disordered fancy.3

3. This subject is as clearly defined as it is susceptible of being, in the case of Attorney-General v. Parnther, by Lord Chancellor Thurlow. "By a perfect interval, I do not mean a cooler moment, an abatement of pain or violence, or of a higher state of torture, a mind relieved from excessive pressure; but an interval in which the mind, having thrown off the disease, had recovered its general habit."

'Taylor, Med. Jur. 651, 652. “Lucid intervals sometimes appear suddenly in the insane.... The duration of the interval is uncertain; it may last for a few minutes only, or may be protracted for days, weeks, months, and even years. In a medico-legal view its alleged existence must always be looked upon with suspicion and doubt, when the interval is very short." The person in a lucid interval, should be able to talk of the subject and nature of his delusion, without producing excitement, or confusion of ideas, or uncertain apprehension in regard to individual consciousness. The sense of double consciousness is a sure indication of illusion.

3 Brown, Ch. C. 444. We do not understand, from what Lord Thurlow here says, that it is required, that the person shall be restored to perfect health, before mental capacity and responsibility return. That would be difficult to show, in any case, short of absolute cure, which is not required. But something more should exist, to constitute a lucid interval, than such a periodical relaxation of the disease, as occurs in a quotidian fever, where chills and fever are succeeded by a state of comparative ease, for a short but limited period.

-

4. Others have defined it with more variety of figure and circumlocution, as the Chancellor D'Aguesseau, in his argument for the Abbe d'Orleans: "It must not be a superficial tranquillity, a shadow of repose, but on the contrary, a profound tranquillity, a real repose; it must be, not a mere ray of reason, which only makes its absence more apparent when it is gone, not a flash of lightning, which pierces through the darkness only to render it more gloomy and dismal, not a glimmering, which joins the night to the day, but a perfect light, a lively and continued lustre, a full and entire day, interposed between two separate nights, of the fury which precedes and follows it; and to use another image, it is not a deceitful and faithless stillness, which follows or forbodes a storm, but a sure and steadfast tranquillity, for a time, a real calm, a perfect serenity; in fine, — it must be, not a mere diminution, a remission of the complaint, but a kind of temporary cure, an intermission so clearly marked, as in every respect to resemble the restoration of health." 5

Evans, Pothier on Obligations, App. 579. Some writers have attempted to distinguish the different classes of relaxations to which insanity is subject, by distinct terms, as,

Lucid intervals, by which they understand, an approximation toward perfect restoration of mental soundness, but not of mental strength;

Remission, which differs from the former in degree only;

Alternation, which is where the mind changes from one form of insanity to another, as from mania to depression, and vice versa.

Intermission, where the disease recurs at more or less regular periods, and continues for a time and then disappears. Some curious illustrations occur in regard to the periodicity of insanity. We find cases where the disease recurs at precisely the same hour each day, and after continuing for a definite time disappears. Of two women, one was afflicted precisely nine days in each month, and the other, two days. Wharton and Stillé, § 255. Dr. Rush, in his treatise on the Mind, 162, 163, gives some curious illustrations of the inexplicable freaks of mental unsoundness, which tend to throw light upon this subject. "The longer the intervals between the paroxysms of madness, the more complete is the restoration to reason. Remissions, rather than intermissions, take place where the intervals are of short duration, and these distinguish it from febrile

5. From all this and a great deal more, which might be adduced, from writers, who have maintained the essential distinction, and elemental difference, between a lucid interval and a mere remission of mania, we think it natural to conclude, that the only practical and intelligible distinction, which can be stated, between them, must be predicated of its clearness and apparent exemption from delusion, and longer continuance, on

delirium in which intermissions more generally occur. In many cases, every thing is remembered that passes under the notice of the patient, during a paroxysm of general madness, but in those cases where the memory is diseased, as well as the understanding, nothing is recollected. I attended a lady in the month of October, 1802, who had crossed the Atlantic ocean during a paroxysm of derangement, without recollecting a single circumstance of her voyage any more than if she had passed the whole time in sleep. Sometimes every thing is forgotten in the interval of a paroxysmı, but recollected in a succeeding paroxysm. I once attended the daughter of a British officer, who had been educated in the habits of gay life, who was married to a Methodist minister. In her paroxysms of madness, she resumed her gay habits, spoke French, and ridiculed the tenets and practices of the sect to which she belonged. In the intervals of her fits, she renounced her gay habits, became zealously devoted to the religious principles and ceremonies of the Methodists, and forgot every thing she did and said during her fits of insanity. A deranged sailor, some years ago, in the Pennsylvania Hospital, fancied himself to be an admiral, and walked and commanded, with all the dignity and authority that are connected with that high rank in the navy. He was cured and discharged: his disease, sometime afterwards, returned, and with it all the actions of an admiral, which he assumed and imitated in his former paroxysm. It is remarkable, that some persons when deranged talk rationally, but act irrationally, while others act rationally and talk irrationally. We had a sailor, some years ago, in our hospital, who spent a whole year in building and rigging a small ship in his cell. Every part of it was formed by a mind apparently in a sound state. During the whole of the year, in which he was employed in this work, he spoke not a word. In bringing his ship out of his cell, a part of it was broken. He immediately spoke, and became violently deranged soon afterwards. Again, some madmen talk ration-ally, and write irrationally; but it is more common for them to utter a few con-nected sentences in conversation, but not be able to connect two correct sen-tences together in a letter. Of this, I have known many instances in our hospital."

the one hand; or its shorter duration and indistinctness of apprehension, upon the other.6

6. It is certainly not required by the English courts of chancery, that one should be absolutely restored to his former state of mind, in order to do a valid and responsible act. It is said to have been so laid down, by Lord Chancellor Thurlow, in Attorney-General v. Parnther, but that is distinctly qualified in later cases. But the illustration put by his lordship in the last case referred to, of one being reduced to a state of extreme weakness, by the delirium of fever, is certainly not a very perfect illustration of the subject. It shows, indeed, that one's reason may return, while great weakness of body continues. But delirium is, as we have said, a wholly distinct affection from

6

Ray, Med. Jur. § 376 et seq.; Combe, Ob. on Mental Derangement, 241. The views of this learned writer, which are fully adopted by Dr. Ray, are not unworthy of repetition here.

But, however calm and rational the patient may appear to be, during the lucid intervals, as they are called, and while enjoying the quietude of domestic society, or the limited range of a well-regulated asylum, it must never be supposed, that he is in as perfect possession of his senses, as if he had never been ill. In ordinary circumstances, and under ordinary excitement, his perceptions may be accurate, and his judgment perfectly sound; but a degree of irritability of brain remains behind, which renders him unable to withstand any unusual emotion, any sudden provocation, or any unexpected and pressing emergency. Were not this the case, it is manifest, that he would not be more liable to a fresh paroxysm, than if he had never been attacked. And the opposite is notoriously the fact; for relapses are always to be dreaded, not only after a lucid interval, but even after a perfect recovery. And it is but just, as well as proper, to keep this in mind, as it has too often happened, that the lunatic has been visited with the heaviest responsibility, for acts committed during such an interval, which, previous to the first attack of the disease, he would have shrunk from with horror."

3 Brown, C. C. 441. That does not appear in the authorized report of the case, but in Hon. Mr. Eden's note, 3 Brown, C. C. 445, and in the report of Lord Chancellor Eldon's opinion, in Ex parte Holyland, 11 Vesey, 11.

8 Lord Eldon, in Ex parte Holyland, supra.

9 Ante, §12. See Dr. Ray's comments upon this very point. Med. Jur. of Insanity, § 388 and note, ed. 1860.