COLEGATE D. OWINGS' CASE.

all respects, but there may also be particular points and objects as
to which the mind of the maniac may be perfectly clear, consistent,
and sound; as in the case of the holographic will made by a lunatic
woman, whose hands, at her earnest entreaty, were untied for the
purpose of permitting her to write.(1)

But this proteus disorder, in its milder forms, is not at all
perceptible to a superficial observer, often escapes the notice of the
most skilful, even after being apprised of the existence of the
malady; and it frequently happens that it cannot be detected
without an examination of some time, and repeated observations.
Although in law this stale of the* mind is held to be a course or
habit, not a mere act, but as having some continuance; yet it is
considered as a distempered condition, occasioned by disorder or
accident, from which the recovery of the patient is deemed possible
and probable; and therefore he and his property are always dis-
posed of with a view to a recovery.(m)

DOTAGE is that feebleness of the mental faculties which proceeds
from old age. It is a diminution or decay of that intellectual
power which was once possessed. It is the slow approach of
death; of that irrevocable cessation, without hurt or disease, of all
the functions which once belonged to the living animal. The
external functions gradually cease; the senses waste away by
degrees; and the mind is imperceptibly visited by decay. The
inert and dull senses transmit the passing occurrences so imper-
fectly to the sensorium, that they leave none, or but a very transi-
tory impression there. Hence long past transactions are often
remembered with much more exactness than those which have
taken place recently. In the second childhood, as in the first, all
the present makes but a faint and fleeting impression upon the
mind. Hence the judgment in both stages, is weak, and the
conduct unsteady and frivolous.(n)

(1) Cartwright v. Cartwright, 1 Phill. 90.—(m) 1 Coll. Id. 33; Beverley's case, 4 Co.
124; Donegal's case, 2 Ves. 408; Attorney General v. Parnther, 3 Bro. Ch. Ca. 441;
Fitzgerald, a lunatic, 2 Scho. & Lefr. 437; Shelf. Lun. 36.
(n) " The soul in all hath one intelligence;

Though too much moisture in an infant's brain,
And too much dry ness in an old man's sense,
Cannot the prints of outward things retain :
Then doth the soul want work, and idle sit;

And this we childishness and dotage call. Dames.
Or, as has been said, it is that decline of all the powers of the man, when
Nature, as it grows again towards earth

Is fashion'd for the journey, dull, and heavy. Cowper.
Shakspeare's As You Like It, act 2, s. 7, and second part of Henry 4th, act I, s, 2.