Not a Case in Psychiatry

To the Editor of the Philadelphia Medical Journal:
     Dear Doctor:—In my opinion, the Czolgosz case presents no points for medico-legal discussion. It is difficult to comprehend how so revolting, so senseless and so useless a crime could be committed by a person of normal mental make-up—difficult to understand how a young man born and educated in this country could commit such a crime and still be mentally sound. This thought doubtless filled the minds of the counsel for the prisoner, for they caused the prisoner to be examined as to his mental condition by competent medical experts, but the fact that these experts were not placed upon the witness stand, permits of no other inference than that their examination furnished no data upon which a theory of insanity could be based. Under these circumstances the case of Czolgosz does not belong to the field of psychiatry, but to that of the psychology of crime.