There was such a thing as momentary insanity, in which the person, otherwise rational to all appearances, was for the time actually bereft of reason, and not responsible for his acts.

The causes of this momentary possession could often be found in the person's life.

[It afterwards came out that the chief expert for the defense, was paid a thousand dollars for looking into the case.] The prosecution consumed another day in the examination of experts refuting the notion of insanity.

These causes might have produced insanity, but there was no evidence that they have produced it in this case, or that the prisoner was not at the time of the commission of the crime in full possession of her ordinary faculties.
The trial had now lasted two weeks.

It required four days now for the lawyers to "sum up." These arguments of the counsel were very important to their friends, and greatly enhanced their reputation at the bar but they have small interest to us.