Lithium in drinking water and crimes, suicides related to drug addictions (1990)

Rabin explains that the legal system was equipped to deal with “a coherent and cohesive self,” a punishable body, and with total, unmistakable, “perfect” insanity, not with pitiable human beings who insisted that temporary states of mind resulting from starvation, pain, passion, and suffering explained (and excused) their crimes, especially in the age of sensibility. She usefully summarizes opinions about human nature and the proliferation of theories of self and moral sense by, among others, Anthony Ashley Cooper, earl of Shaftesbury, David Hume, and Adam Smith, and then weaves together legal, social, and cultural history to tell the story of juries, judges, and legal theorists grappling with the new demand that they possess sensibility. After the introductory one, chapter 2 clearly explains the mechanics of eighteenth-century trials and the major changes in the century, such as the evolution of the lawyerized courtroom from the “accused speaks” trial that Moll Flanders portrays.

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