A treatise on the medical jurisprudence of insanity.

The first authoritative and comprehensive treatise in English on forensic psychiatry. Ray became the most influential American writer on forensic psychiatry in the 19th century. He put the above work through five editions, the last of which appeared in 1871. Ray's book was deployed effectively by defense lawyer Sir Alexander Cockburn in the English trial of Daniel M'Naghten (McNaghten) in 1843. At the trial, Cockburn quoted extensively from the book which rejected traditional views of the insanity defense based on the defendant's ability to distinguish "right from wrong" in favor of a broader approach based on causation. Reprint of 1st edition with introduction and notes by W. Overholser, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard Univ. Press, 1962. Digital facsimile of the 1st edition (1838) from Google Books at this link;  5th edition (1871) from Google Books at this link.