Note 50:A — ON Medical JURISPRUDENCE, &c. &c.

A broad distinction should be made between the immediate and remote effects of intoxication. A man is not held guiltless who perpetrates a crime during the state of intoxication. He voluntarily introduces into his system a stimulus which augments his ferocity, diminishes his moral affections, and overshadows his reason. But the usual effect of this stimulus is temporary, he awakes from his debauch rational, and commonly drags after him the heavy chain of reflection. It is however equally true that this single excess may be continued into permanent insanity: he may remain for many months in a state of mental derangment, and during the prevalence of his disorder may be compelled to forego all intoxicating beverage.—If such person after the elapse of several weeks from the commencement of his disorder, should, under its influence, commit a fatal outrage, no system of jurisprudence would connect the violence with the cause which originally produced the disease.