Such a condition is equally possible to the victim of mental
disease, where the knowledge of right and wrong has no real
relevancy.
The test of irresponsibility as defined by law is hopelessly
inadequate, judged by present medical knowledge. There is no
longer any pretence that a perception of the nature and
quality of an act or that it is wrong or right is conclusive
of the actual insanity of a particular accused. In a recent
murder case a distinguished alienist, testifying for the
prosecution, admitted that over seventy per cent. of the
patients under his treatment, all of whom he regarded as
insane and irresponsible, knew what they were doing and could
distinguish right from wrong.
Countless attempts have been made to reconcile this obvious
anachronism with justice and modern knowledge, but always
without success, and courts have wriggled hard in their
efforts to make the test adequate to the particular cases
which they have been trying, but only with the result of
hopelessly confounding the decisions.
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