The Law of Lunacy *"A Letter to the Right Hon. Lord Ashley, M.P., relative to the Case of Nottidge versus Ripley. By T. T. Wingett, M.D., Medical Superintendent of the Dundee Royal Lunatic Asylum. Dundee. 1849."—2. "The Defects of the Law of Lunacy: a Vindication of the Decision of the Lord Chief Baron, in the Case of Nottidge verses Ripley. By T. T. Wingett, M.D. Dundee. 1849."

Lord Chief Baron's opinion?which he (Dr. Wingett) declares to have " already done much mischief in the judicial proceedings of Scotland" ?yet declares that? " It is, palpably, the grossest absurdity to impeach the judge for the results of this case; he has merely propounded the law?extreme law it may be-?but the law nevertheless. The law only is at fault, and if we insist upon attacking the law in the person of his lordship, hold him responsible for all its fatuities, and treat him as the proxy of Sir Edward Coke and his predecessors, Sir Frederick Pollock will stand forth to us in a somewhat similar spirit and attitude to that maintained by Cato, who when, at the age of eighty-six, he was accused of certain offences of his past life, committed at times longgone by, said, with profound sagacity : 1 It is difficult to render an account of one's own conduct to men belonging to an age different from that in which one has lived.' "