DRUNKENNESS. Intoxication with strong liquor.
2. This is an offence generally punished by local regulations, more or
less severely.
3. Although drunkenness reduces a man to a temporary insanity, it does
not excuse him or palliate his offence, when he commits a crime during a fit
of intoxication, and which is the immediate result of it. When the act is a
remote consequence, superinduced by the antecedent drunkenness of the party,
as in cases of delirium tremens or mania a potu, the insanity excuses the
act. 5 Mison's R. 28; Amer. Jurist, vol. 3, p. 5-20; Martin and Yeager's. R.
133, 147;. Dane's Ab. Index, h.t.; 1 Russ. on Cr. 7; Ayliffe's Parerg. 231
4 Bl. Com. 26.
4. As there must be a will and intention in order to make a contract,
it follows, that a man who is in such a state of intoxication as not to know
what he is doing, may avoid a contract entered into by him while in this
state. 2 Aik. Rep. 167; 1 Green, R. 233; 2 Verm. 97; 1 Bibb, 168; 3 Hayw. R.
82; 1 Hill, R. 313; 1 South. R. 361; Bull. N. P. 172; 1 Ves. 19; 18 Ves. 15;
3 P. Wms. 130, n. a; Sugd. Vend. 154; 1 Stark. 126; 1 South. R. 361; 2
Hayw. 394; but see 1 Bibb, R. 406; Ray's Med. Jur. ch. 23, 24; Fonbl. Eq. B.
2, 3; 22 Am. Jur. 290; 1 Fodere, Med. Leg. Sec. 215. Vide Ebriosity;
Habitua. drunkard.
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