362 COLEGATE D. OWINGS' CASE.—1 BLAND.

Idiocy is that condition in which the human creature has never
had, from birth, any the least glimmering of reason; and is utterly

destitute of all those intellectual faculties by which man, in gene-
ral, is so eminently and peculiarly distinguished. It is not the
condition of a deranged mind; but that of a total absence of all
mind. Hence this state of fatuity can rarely or ever be mistaken
by any, the most superficial, observer. The medical profession
seem to regard it as a natural defect, not as a disease in itself, or
as the result of any disorder. In law, it is also considered as a
defect, and as a permanent and hopeless incapacity. 1 Par. &
Fonb. 289, 308; Rush on the Mind, 292; Co. Litt. 240; 1 Hawk. P.
C. 2, note ; Donegal's Case, 2 Fes. 408.

Delirium is that state of the mind in which it acts without being
directed by the power of volition, which is wholly or partially sus-
pended. This happens most perfectly in dreams. But what is
commonly called delirium, is always preceded or attended by a
feverish and highly diseased state of the body. The patient in
delirium is wholly unconscious of surrounding objects; or con-
ceives them to be different from what thej really are. His thoughts
seem to drift about; wildering and tossing amidst distracted dreams.
And his observations, when he makes any, as often happens, are
wild and incoherent; or, from excess of pain, he sinks into a low
muttering, or silent and death-like stupor. 2 Zoonomia C. 2, 1, 7;
Rees' Cyclo. ver. Delirium; Rush on the Mind, 9, 298; 1 Par. &
Fonb. 300. The law contemplates this species of mental derange-
ment as an intellectual eclipse; as a darkness occasioned by a cloud
of disease passing over the mind; and which must soon terminate
in health or in death. 1 Coll. Idiots, 7, 405; 1 Fonb. 68; Shelf.
Lun. 43; Brogden v. Brown, 2 Add. Eccl. Rep. 441.

Lunacj" is that condition or habit in which the mind is directed
by the will, but is wholly or partially misguided, or erroneously
governed by it; or it is the impairment of any one or more of the
faculties of the mind, accompanied with, or inducing a defect in
the comparing faculty. For, as has been observed by a great
philosopher, those who either perceive but dully, or retain the
ideas that come into their minds but ill, who cannot readily excite
or compound them, will have little matter to think on. Those who
cannot distinguish, compare, and abstract, would hardly be able
to * understand and make use of language; or judge or rea-
387 son to any tolerable degree; but only a little and imperfectly

about things present and very familiar to their senses. The defect
in idiots seems to proceed from want of quickness, activity, and
motion in the intellectual faculties, whereby they are deprived of
reason; whereas madmen seem to suffer by the other extreme: for
they do not appear to have lost the faculty of reasoning, but hav-
ing joined together some ideas very wrongly, they mistake them
for truths, and they err as men do who argue right from wrong