TM INSANITY FiCTiafJ. We notice that a number of papers ea,st and west still keop harpinir in t lie allozed insanity of ideFarland in his killing of Richardson, and some of thi!in ure that he should he shut up in an insane a.-ylum, as is dune in eases in F,ni'l;ui;l where murderers are acquittal ac-quittal on the same plea. 1 he subject lately came up h fore a meeting of the 'IediiM Leal Society of the city of Xe v York, when a paper was read by Dr. .James J. O'Den, in whi;h lie held that I he -introduction of the plea of insanity in criminal cases should always he genuine, and not a piece of legal Ftratc'cy. The Cole and -IcFarland cases were tiled, and the opinion expressed ex-pressed that, there was dan.er of a heliel becoming general that the murderer mur-derer is in every caso more or less insane. Means were proposed to meet such a contingency, which, of course, were merely theoretical. It is surprising to see how the real facts at issue in such cases as McFar-land's McFar-land's of Cole's; is fenced with hy men of ability. They cannot hut know that no real belief ever . existed in the al-loerd al-loerd insanity of either of these men. 1 1 might be assumed that every mur d"rer is more or less insane, for no man with a healthy mind could deliberately plan the murder of another; and in oases of killing from the momentary impulse of passion, even the law discriminates dis-criminates and acknowledges the temporary tem-porary insanity of passion, by permitting permit-ting a verdict of manslaughter, or murder mur-der in the second degree, because the deed was not done prenie jitatedly and with malice aforethought. But in the ra.-.e of McFarland the matter is simply sim-ply thus. The jury believed he had been w rouged in a manner lor which the law provides no proportionate propor-tionate remedy ; and that he was justified in acting in accordance with common sentiment, expressed by numerous juries, which is to all intents and purpose common law; for the decision de-cision of the people, when strongly expressed, ex-pressed, is virtually the controlling law of the land, though it may not be found on any statute book. The plea of insanity was simply a legal fiction, recocnized as such by the entire country, except, perhaps, a few animated by personal feelings; and that plea enabled the jury to virtually say, as other juries have said before it: ' The man that seduces his neighbor's wife is worthy of death and her husband hus-band is justified in killing him." It is possible that if any heavy punishment were imiicted for the crime of which such men as Hitchcock and Richardson Richard-son stood accused before the nation, a jury would not so readily acquit those who should kill them; but as it stands to-day these acquittals are significant lessons which libidinous men and the whole free-love fraternity would do well to consider- .- MeFarland and Cole were acquitted, purely and simply because be-cause the juries before whom they were tried, considered them justified in slaving the destroyers of their domestic domes-tic happiness and defders of their marriage mar-riage beds. And in the absence of a law inflicting just punishment for such adultery, it is ir; atilying to see such a sentiment growing in the nation, for it is a Safe if P ruble preventive of the heinous crime ugainst which it is, directed.