CONTRACT ACCEPTANCE OF OFFER. - Where a stop the train entirely, and give the passenger asked for information and documents relating to ample time and opportunity to alight. (Atchison, the bonds, in order to submit them to its counsel, T. & S. F. R. Co. v. Hughes [Kan.], 40 Pac. Rep. and, after receiving an opinion from its counsel that 919.) the bonds were invalid, declined to take them, and demanded the return of $3,500, deposited on making its bid. The city refused to return the money and notified complainant that it would sell the bonds to the highest bidder, and hold complainant liable for any loss. Thereupon complainant filed its bill, praying an adjudication as to the validity of the bonds, a return of the $3,500 if they were found invalid, or the delivery of the bonds on payment of the price if found valid, and an injunction against the city's disposing of the bonds: Held, that equity had jurisdiction of the suit, the remedy at law being inadequate. (German-American Inv. Co. of New series of articles by different authors is offered to [Penn.], 32 Atl. Rep. 293.) CONTRACT -LAW OF PLACE. Plaintiff, an Ohio corporation, having its principal place of business at A, in that State, made a contract with defendant, a resident of Michigan. The contract was executed by defendant in Michigan, and subsequently countersigned by plaintiff's agent in that State and approved at plaintiff's main office at A, pursuant to a provision, contained in it, that it was "not valid unless countersigned by our manager at L and approved at A:" Held, that the contract was made in Ohio, and was not within the terms of a statute of Michigan relating to contracts made in that State. (Aultman, Miller & Co. v. Holder [U. S. C. C. Mich.], 68 Fed. Rep. 467.) CORPORATIONS UNLAWFUL PAYMENT BY DIRECTORS.-Where directors of a corporation wrongfully appropriated money in salaries to themselves, the court may, in an action by the minority stockholders against the majority and the corporation, when the prayer is ample, decree direct payment by the majority stockholders, who were directors, to the minority, of their aliquot share of the amount found due the corporation. (Eaton v. Robinson [R. I.], 32 Atl. Rep. 339.) DECEIT DAMAGES. Defendant, falsely claiming authority to do so, agreed to sell lands to plaintiff at a certain price. Pending the negotiations plaintiff told defendant he intended selling his interest in a fertilizer business to raise money to pay for the land. Plaintiff did not allege that he was obliged to sell his business to raise the money, nor that he intended to go into any other business in the event of his purchase of the land, nor did it appear but his loss would have been the same if he had purchased the land: Held, in an action for damages, that plaintiff cannot recover special damages resulting from the sale of his business. (Webster v. Woolford [Md.], 32 Atl. Rep. 319.) EQUITY-JURISDICTION.-The city of Y advertised for bids for certain bonds about to be issued by it. Complainant submitted the highest bid, and was notified that the same would be accepted. It then York v. City of Youngstown, [U. S. C. C. Ohio], 68 DELIVERY. As affect ing the right of stoppage in transitu on account of the insolvency of the vendee, it is a question for the jury whether the transit has ended when the vendee, being unable to pay the freight, was, to save demurrage, allowed by the railroad to unload the cars, and pile the goods in its yard until he could pay the freight. (Rogers v. Schneider, [Ind.], 41 N. E. Rep. 71). FRAUD TRADE-MARK UNFAIR COMPETITION OF PLAINTIFF.- Fraud, such as to disentitle a plaintiff to relief against unfair competition in his business, cannot be predicated of statements which, owing to the brevity required by the limited space of a label, are not minutely accurate; nor of the use on two classes of goods of labels which might be mistaken for each other, the statements on both being true; nor of the use, to a limited extent, of the name of a firm to which the plaintiff believed itself to have succeeded; nor of the use of "trade talk" in. advertisements. (Clark Thread Co. v. Admitage, U. S. S. C. [N. Y.], 67 Fed. Rep. 896.) DEVISEES VESTED ESTATE. A testa WILL tor, having two daughters, devised one-half of his estate in equal proportious to the four children of one, and the other one-half in equal proportions to the five children of the other. The will, in devis ing each child its portion, provided that at such child's death, his or her portion was to go to his or her children or child, but if he or she left none, then to his or her brothers and sisters. Held, that each child took a vested interest on the death of the testator, and on the death of one of the devisees without issue, the surviving children of a previously deceased devisee would take an equal portion with the surviving brothers and sisters of the share of such devisee. (Graves v. Spurr, [Ky.], 31 S. W. Rep. 483). The Albany Law Journal. ALBANY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1895. Current Topics. [All communications intended for the Editor should be addressed simply to the Editor of THE ALBANY LAW JOURNAL. All letters relating to advertisements, subscriptions, or other business matters, should be addressed to THE ALBANY LAW JOURNAL COMPANY.] HERE appears to be little doubt but that more was added to medico-legal learning at the recent meeting in New York than at any previous gathering of the association. The presence of distinguished foreigners, who are experts in criminal cases, was, of itself, of great importance, and we believe that many of the improved practices of our medico-legal brethren can be emulated with great success by lawyers. The advance in medicine and surgery has been, perhaps, more rapid than the accommodation of legal procedure to the increased business of the country. At the least the discussions which took place at the medicolegal conference have great intrinsic merit and value to the members of our profession. It is well known that Dr. L. Forbes Winslow of London, recently wrote an article for a London magazine on the Madness of Genius, which is condensed in an interview thus: "There is a great relationship between insanity and genius. It is a most difficult thing to define the line that separates the sane from the insane, the babbling, driveling idiot from the man of transcendent genius. Such a line of demarkation is not easy to define; on the one side a highly wrought and gifted mind, and on the other an intellect distracted and tainted. "Another difficult thing is to draw the distinction between the creations of genius and the wanderings of insanity. Excessive expansion of brain matter, great sensibility, acute sensitiveness, quickness of apprehension, and vividness of imagination are all indications of a state of brain bordering closely on the confines of disease. In the majority of studious men there often exists a predisposition to brain disease which may have actually existed. This is manifested in many ways. "In Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron'the VOL. 52 No. 13. malformation of the foot and leg and talipes, to which they were subject, indicated that a nervous attack occurred during intra-uterine life of a paralytic or spasmodic character. Such an occurrence has been proved beyond doubt to be liable to be accompanied by modifications of the mental characteristics, and in some instances by downright idiocy. This is specially so when the spasmodic attack has been severe and the deformity great. "In others it is followed by eccentricity, impetuosity of temper, waywardness, or genius, such as a slight strabismus or a twist of the even when there is only a small deformity, foot. Byron was a child with a temper sullenly passionate. The irregular action of his nervous system and the peculiarity of his temper were inherited from his parents. His parental ancestors were remarkable for their eccentricities, irregular passions, and daring recklessness. His mother was liable to outbursts of ungovernable temper and feeling. With such a parentage and so constituted, it is not remarkable that Byron fell so early. His last moments, as depicted by Moore, must produce a feeling of melancholy. Madden described Byron's malady to be epilepsy, and he had doubtless many signs of cerebro-spinal disorder, as indicated by his frequent twitchings and strong emotion. It is on record that he awoke every morning with a feeling of melancholy, despondency, and actual despair. "The very infancy of genius is often marked Michael Angelo was by eccentric behavior. called the 'Divine Madman,' while Oliver Cromwell was designated an inspired idiot.' Turner, the great painter, was considered by many people in his day to be hardly responsible for his actions. "As I said in an article which I wrote a little while ago, and which has created so great a sensation, genius is often a fatal gift, like beauty. Genius, as is so often seen, is seldom combined with common sense. The irritability. of genius, which is so common, is the first link in that chain of psychical maladies so often terminating in hypochondriasis, when melancholy marks the martyr of thought and genius as its own. and frequently the so-called prodigy, who does not ultimately become a genius, will stop half way, becoming insane. Insanity is a half-way house, and the precocious youth, having well passed its confines, will, in all probability develop into a genius; but, alas! many fail to pass this barrier, and consequently our institutions are full of brilliant intellects cut short in the precocity of their youth. "The genius of Sir Walter Scott ended in a state of imbecility. He first became conscious of his condition by a partial loss of memory and want of recognition of even his own sonnets. "Shakespeare died in the meridian of his splendor of a foolish excess, for it is in the records of the Medical Society of London that Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting, and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a feavor there contracted.' That is from the diary of Mr. Ward, who was an intimate friend of Shakespeare. The insanity of genius, is a psychological problem, and comes before us with the most awful contrasts respecting life and death. Illusion is a pronounced characteristic of genius, and this is not to be wondered at when we consider that the workings of the imaginative mind are one protracted course of ideal creation. Torquato Tasso suffered from mania periodique,' and was a victim of the literary envy of the sovereign. He suffered from auricular delusions and phantasmagoria. He would converse eloquently with his imaginary familiar spirit, who, according to his statement, paid him various visits. It is a very dangerous thing to indulge to any extent in phantasy, as the impression becomes permanent, and what was imaginative may become real. Abnormal circulation of the brain is the supposed cause of these states of phantasmagoria which we read of as occurring in so many poetical geni uses. "Rousseau, the great French poet, suffered from immoral insanity, William Cowper was confined in an asylum for eighteen months, suffering from religious melancholia. Thomas Chatterton, suffered from monomania, which culminated in suicide. Frederick Schiller, the great Shakespeare of Germany, became a dipsomaniac. Jonathan Swift suffered from organic disease of the brain. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a typical example of monomania, associated with an uncontrollable craving for opium. Robert Southey suffered from melancholy and threatened paralysis, and would frequently tap his forehead, exclaiming, 'Memory, Memory, where are thou gone?' Charles Lamb suffered from 'Folie circulaire,' but he came from an insane family. His sister plunged a carving knife into the bosom of her mother, and was the cause of his becoming mentally unhinged. Shelley, a contemporary of Byron, was a confirmed opium eater. His mind was completely absorbed in his studies, and one day he wandered into Leicester Square and unconsciously threw himself on the pavement, where he was discovered at an early hour next morning. "If we turn to American poets, we find that Percival of Connecticut suffered from melancholia, following the eccentricity of genius while Hoffman, a great American poet, suffered from mania errabunda.' "It is not the geniuses of poetry, art, science, and literature who alone fall the victims of mental disorder. Those minds which are continually engaged on the collusions and jealousies of the political arena are often found to fall in the struggle. Pitt, Fox, and Canning died in the meridian of their fame, their lives cut short by the continued strain of overwhelming mental conditions. "Lord Randolph Churchill is the latest example of a genius cut short in his prime, of whom great things were expected, and whose career I closely watched with a curious psychological interest, his condition being perfectly apparent to me for some time previous to his death. This is a typical illustration of the decadence of a master mind prostrated by disease which had its origin in abnormal and undue political excitement. irritable nature. Many hard brain workers until our present law, which came into operacontinue their labors long after they have retion in 1890. In 1877 a parliamentary comceived a warning, as indicated by acute head-mittee sat, in consequence of alleged irregu aches, but, notwithstanding the caution sent us, we persevere with our mental labor, heedless of what must be the inevitable result. "I have had under my personal observation a well-known London comedian, who, on his own admission, felt inclined to cut his throat while waiting in the wings, but whose entrance on the stage was greeted with roars of laughter. 66 Another who came under my perperson sonal attention was Sir Edwin Landseer, the famous painter. He died from general paralysis. "Musicians, though men of marked genius, are often eccentric, but our records do not give many instances of mental derangement among them. When we come to sum up the whole question of the genius of madness, I cannot do better than repeat what I have already written on the subject, and that is that when the history of the present century is written there will be many geniuses to be recorded who, having commenced with brilliant careers, were driven by mental disorder to do something strange, which has handed their memory down to posterity not only as the brilliant geniuses they were, but also as examples of mental decadence which, though dormant in them for some time, ultimately culminated in a positive outburst of insanity. The insanity of genius is one of the many awful proofs of immortality--that the unfettered spirit that moved the lips and pen to speak or write the syllables which still delight mankind is unchanged, unchangeable; but the phenomena which our senses perceive, both of intellect and madness, are the results of health or disease in that structure, by its emancipation from which the intellectual, yet tainted mind, becomes the pure, immortal soul." At the meeting of the Medico-legal Society Dr. L. Forbes Winslow's paper on the increase of insanity is one which is most instructive especially his history of the lunacy law in England-as statistics showing the increase in insanity in England and that there is less in this country than in England. On this subject he said: The 1845 lunacy act, with one or more unimportant amendments, remained in existence larities in the law. It consisted of fifteen members, who sat patiently throughout the whole of the summer. The chief witnesses were lunacy experts, government officials, discharged lunatics with imaginary grievances, former inmates of asylums, ever eager to make complaint. The result of this was a bulky official blue book as the outcome of what had taken place. Clouds and mists were dissipated and there remained the fact, as testified to by reliable witnesses, that the law as then administered was sufficiently equitable and humane. The report concluded by stating, notwithstanding all the evidence, "in no single instance had mala fides been proved." Thirteen years after this, without any further government inquiry, was passed the act of 1890, which I will at once pronounce as inferior to the old act, and in certain ways very complicated. A lengthy consideration does not appear to me to come within this department of the congress, and I therefore only very briefly propose to allude to that part of it which directly refers to the admission of patients into asylums in England. To admit a patient into an asylum in ordinary cases of lunacy can be dealt with in one or two ways. First, a petition signed by a relative, accompanied by two medical certificates, are presented to a justice of the peace, magistrate or county judge, who, if he is satisfied, signs the reception "order," and the patient can be admitted forthwith, and those taking part in such removal are protected by the statute. There are certain persons who are prohibited from signing the order or medical cer tificates, but I will not weary you with a detailed account of the act, with its 342 sections. I only think desirable to inform you as to the admission of lunatics in England. Then, in an urgency case, a patient can be admitted on one certificate, accompanied by an order of a relative. Upon these documents anyone can be received into an asylum. Within a specified time of the reception under these circumstances, two fresh medical certificates have to be obtained, and a petition signed by the relative. These are presented to a justice of the peace having authority in the matter, who, if he is satisfied, signs the reception "order." In Great Britain on the 1st of January, 1895, according to the very latest available statistics, there were 94,081 persons registered as of unsound mind in the various institutions of England and Wales. As compared with the registered lunatics on the 1st of January, 1894, there is an increase of 2,014. These lunatics are distributed in private asylums called licensed houses, in county and borough asylums, registered hospitals, naval and military hospitals, criminal lunatic asylums, workhouses, private single patients and outdoor paupers. Of the gross total, 61,908 are detained in county and borough asylums, whereas the private lunatics in licensed houses amount to 4,178, the remaining number being distributed in the other receptacles for lunatics which I have previously mentioned. Taking the decade from 1859 to 1869 inclusive, the average annual increase was 1,641; in that between 1869 and 1879 it was 1,671; in that between 1879 and 1889 it was 1,425, while in the six years between 1889 and 1894 it was 1.628. The estimated population of Great Britain at the present day is 14,724, 164 males and 15,666,914 females, making a gross total of 30,394,078 individuals. The ratio per 10,000 of lunatics to the population is 29.06 males and 32.75 females, or a gross total of 30.95. Whereas in 1886, when the total population amounted to 27,581,780, statistics show us that in every 10,ooo of the population there was the ratio of 29.12 of lunatics. Thus we see that in ten years there has been an increase of over 1,000 persons of unsound mind in every 10,000 of the gross population in Great Britain. The increase of pauper lunacy has been very general throughout the country, and in only eight of the fifty-six counties in England is there a decrease; the increase being largest in the county of London, viz., 482. Notwithstanding what we have written on the contrary, there has been, as it is proved by statistics, a gradual increase in insanity in Great Britain, though many of the insane when at first stricken, can be treated outside an institution. There is no provision for such treatment beyond the hospital founded for lunacy in America. It was not until the middle of the eighteenth century that any steps were taken for providing for the care and treatment of the insane in America. Drs. Bond and Franklin in 1750 inaugurated a movement for this purpose in the city of Philadelphia, Penn.; a memorial was presented the following January to the Provin cial Assembly for a charter for an insane asylum and asking for pecuniary assistance. A bill in accordance with this wish was passed in February, 1751. Two thousand pounds were voted as a preliminary, and Thomas Bond and Franklin were nominated two of the managers. Steps were immediately taken to provide for the care of the insane, and a private asylum was rented for a time, pending the construction of a proper establishment. This private house was open in February, 1752, and on the 11th day of that month the first patients ever placed in such an institution in the United States were admitted for treatment, and I understand that ever since that time one wing of the Pennsylvania Hospital has been devoted to the care of the insane. On May 23, 1755, patients were received in the new building. The first State institution for lunatics was opened in 1773 at Williamsburg, Va., also one in New York in July, 1797This was the germ of what is now known as the Bloomingdale Asylum. The Maryland Hospital, in Baltimore, made provision for lunatics the same year, and this accommodation was increased in 1807. From that date up to the present there has been a steadily increasing interest taken in the management and welfare of the insane in the United States, and I am looking forward with much pleasure to visiting these institutions and adding my poor testimony to what I have already heard of the general excellence of your system. According to figures which I have collected, I have discovered that there is less lunacy in America, as compared with some other countries.. In Great Britain the proportion of lunatics is 1 in every 400 of the population. In Scotland, I in 430; in Ireland, I in every 303, in France. I in every 747. and in America, I in every 623, one of the smallest ratios being 1.60 in every 1,000 of the population. In Australia many of the present asylums were originally used as prisons. |