The Calcutta Weekly Notes. Monday July 4 1904

Justice Phillimore in directing the jury told them that the defence was one favoued rather by medical men than by the law but that the facts as to the condition of the accused afforded a better warrant for acceding to it than was usually to be found in a homicide case ; and the jury found the lad to be insane at the time of killing his mother. [...] Ct.) 290—after a full argumelt on the English. the United States and the Roman-Dutch then of the crteria of insanity came to the conclusion tha the absence of legislation to the contrary Courts were bound to recognise the existence of a form of mental disease which prevents the sufferer from controlling his conduct and.choosing bet iteen right and Wrong though he may have*he mental capacit [...] The views of these eminent lawyers are of value not as detertn4ning the limits of the common-law definition of insanity but as indicating the recessity with the growth of mental science and of the knowledge of the forEas of eqtal 'disease of devising instead of the common-law rule hicri now causes divergencies of interpretation some rule Which can be safely applied to all cases where insanity [...] 408 means is that the Court at that stage of the proceedings must be of opinion that on the materials then before the Court there is no reason to refuse the application on any of the grounds stated in sec. [...] In this view a deed of compostion entered into by the insolvent for the benefit of creditors after the vesting order and before the dismissal of the petition was held to be a valid deed the petition having been dismissed by the Court upon being informed of the deed.