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EDWAED D. WORRELL. 137

tlemen, I am through with the depositions, though it will be
necessary to call your attention to some parts of them upon
other branches of the subject.

1 wish now, gentlemen of the jury, to eall your attention
for a moment to that part of Major Wright’s argument, in
whieh he undertook to show that insanity was hereditary in
the family of the prisoner, Upon an igsne of this kind it is
held competent to introduce evidence to show the existence of
the malady with the parents of the accused, or that it has
manifested itself through generations of lineal ancestors, but
never, that I am aware of, among collateral kindred, and the
tact that it has exhibited itself among lineal ancestors is only
important when connected with other facts and cirewmstances
tending to establish insanity in the prisoner. Mr. Taylor
in his work on medical jurisprudence says ‘‘that when it is
transmitted by hereditary descent, it often appears about
the same age, under the same form, and is induced by the
game existing cause in the offepring as in the parent.’’

In this case there is no evidence of its existence at any
time with either the father or mother of the prisoner. It is
true that Mr. Raisin and Mr. Ringold say that they once
heard from rumor that Dr. Worrell hed attempted to commit
suicide, but they know nothing of the fact themselves and if
the attempt had been made, there is no evidence that it had
been induced by insanity.

On the maternal side the prisoner derives his blood from
what is called the Kent Island branch of the Ringold fam-
ily, a very numerous family scattered over a large portion of
Maryland ; and the only instance of supposed insanity in this
branch of the family is that alluded to by Mr. Raisin, the
ease of Thomas Ringold. Mr. Raisin does not state whether
he had personal knowledge of the fact, or whether he derived
his information from rumor, but the latter is the most reason-
able supposition, as he is contradicted by Samuel Ringold,
who states unequivocally that no case of the kind ever oc-
curred in the Kent Island branch of the family, and it is
fair to suppose that he knows more about hia own family than

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