Psychiatry in the 1870s

Extract

Of five judges, three have answered in the negative and two in the affirmative the question put to them by the House of Lords in the Mordaunt case, namely whether the insanity of one of the parties in a divorce suit should preclude the other party from going on with this suit. Lady Mordaunt having been pronounced insane, the Divorce judge had decided that the insanity was a bar to the husband’s prosecution of his suit for divorce on the ground of adultery; and this ruling was confirmed by a majority of judges in the full Court. Sir Charles appealed to the House of Lords, which called in the assistance of the judges, who have illustrated their perplexity by delivering elaborate judgements on opposite sides of the question.