Source, in full
Lord Mansfield, Rex v. Wilkes (1769), 4 Burr. Part IV. 2563; reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 106, which notes: "This dictum of Lord Mansfield probably means that if a person is intoxicated by drink or by success or by anything which practically takes away sober reasoning, that anything which startles him will bring it back again. We see the same in ordinary life : any sudden surprise or shock will put a person in full possession of his senses. This seems the most correct interpretation of the dictum. Says Coke : "Homo potest esse hahilis et inhabilis diversis temporibus": A man may be capable and incapable at different times. —5 Co. 98".