Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British Isles Part 39

The medical man certifying is required to state his qualification, when and where the patient was examined, and to specify facts indicating insanity; distinguis.h.i.+ng facts observed by himself from those communicated to him by others.

Visitors are empowered to order the removal of pauper patients to and from asylums, and also to discharge or permit the absence on trial of any patient. The Commissioners are empowered to direct the removal of any lunatic from any asylum, hospital, or licensed house to any other.

The person signing the order for admission of a private patient into an asylum may discharge such patient, subject, in the case of dangerous lunatics, to the consent of the visiting justices. Any person having authority to discharge a private patient is empowered (with consent of two Commissioners) to transfer him to another asylum or to the care of any person.

Orders and certificates, if defective, may be amended within fourteen days.

Patients escaping may be retaken within fourteen days.

This statute did not re-enact the clause contained in the Act it repealed respecting workhouses.

18 AND 19 VICT., C. 105 (1855).

In 1855 was pa.s.sed the Act 18 and 19 Vict., c. 105, "to amend the Lunatic Asylum Acts and the Acts pa.s.sed in the Ninth and Seventeenth Years of Her Majesty, for the Regulation of the Care and Treatment of Lunatics."

By this statute it was enacted that any single county or borough might unite with the subscribers to a registered hospital, and that the proportion of expenses between any county and borough might be fixed with reference to accommodation likely to be required.

Other sections provide in detail for the maintenance of county and borough asylums, and other matters which it is unnecessary to enumerate.

APPENDIX G.

(Page 195.)

A short summary is added of the provisions in force at the time of the Select Committee of 1859-60, for the protection of private patients.

They remain essentially the same.

In the metropolis, the power of licensing is exclusively in the hands of the Metropolitan Commissioners. In the provincial districts it rests with the justices at quarter sessions. These licenses are annually renewed, and they may be revoked by the Lord Chancellor. The patients are admitted upon an order signed by some relative or friend, with a statement of all the particulars of the case. This statement must be supported by the certificates of two medical pract.i.tioners, who, having examined the patient separately within seven days previous to the reception, state that he is a person of unsound mind, and a proper person to be detained under care and treatment. It must also specify the grounds upon which their opinion has been formed, viz. the facts observed by themselves or communicated by others. After two and before the expiration of seven clear days, the proprietor or superintendent of the licensed house must transmit to the Commissioners, and also to the visiting justices, if the licensed house is within their jurisdiction, a copy of the order and certificates. The licensed house must be visited by two of the Commissioners, four times at least every year, if it lies within their immediate jurisdiction; and if beyond, it must be visited four times at least by Visitors appointed by the justices, one of whom shall be a medical man, and twice at least by two of the Commissioners.

In the course of such visits, inquiries are directed to be made as to the occupation, amus.e.m.e.nt, cla.s.sification, condition, and dietary of the different patients, and also whether a system of non-coercion has been adopted or not; and where it shall appear, either to the Commissioners or to the visiting justices, that a patient is detained without sufficient cause, they have the power, under certain conditions, of ordering his discharge. When a patient recovers, the proprietor or superintendent is required to send notice of such recovery to the person who signed the order for his reception; and if such patient is not discharged or removed within fourteen days, the proprietor is required immediately to transmit a similar notice to the Commissioners or visiting justices, as the case may be. When a patient dies, the medical pract.i.tioner who attended such patient during his illness is to cause a statement to be entered in the case-book, setting forth the time and cause of death, and the duration of the disease of which the patient died, and a copy of such statement, within two days, must be transmitted to the coroner. In addition to these specific provisions, the Commissioners have power from time to time to make regulations for the government of any of these licensed houses, and they must report annually to the Lord Chancellor the number of visits they have made, the number of patients they have seen, the state and condition of the house, the care of the patients therein, and such other particulars as they may think deserving of notice (p. vi.).

25 AND 26 VICT., C. 111, "THE LUNACY ACTS AMENDMENT ACT, 1862."

In consequence of the importance of the Act of 1862, the Commissioners issued the following circular noting its chief provisions:--

_Private Patients._

Sec. 23.--The order must be dated within one month prior to reception; the person signing the order must himself have seen the patient within one month prior to its date; and a statement of the time and place when the patient was so seen must be appended to the order.

Sec. 25.--When possible, every order must contain the name and address of one or more relations of the lunatic, to whom notice of the death of a lunatic must be sent.

Sec. 24.--Besides the persons. .h.i.therto prohibited from signing certificates and orders, the following also are now disqualified:--Any person receiving any percentage on or otherwise interested in the payments for patients, and the medical attendant as defined in the Lunacy Act, c. 100. Also 15 and 16 Vict., c. 96, s. 12; c. 97, s. 76.

Sec. 26.--Where a patient received as a pauper is made a private patient, no fresh order or certificate is required, and _vice versa_.

Sec 28.--With the exception of the statement by the medical officer as to a patient's mental and bodily condition, all the doc.u.ments heretofore required to be sent to the Commissioners after two or before seven clear days from the reception of the patient, must in future be sent within one clear day from such reception. The medical officer's statement is, as heretofore, not to be sent until after two and before seven clear days.

_Letters of Patients._

Sec 40.--Without special directions to the contrary, letters addressed to the Commissioners, committees of Visitors, committees of a hospital, and the Visitors of licensed houses, must be forwarded unopened. Other letters must also be forwarded, unless, by an endors.e.m.e.nt thereon, the superintendent or other person having charge of patients should prohibit their transmission. Letters so endorsed to be laid before Commissioners, committees, or Visitors at next visit.

Sec. 38.--Absence on trial may be permitted to patients, in the same way as leave of absence for the benefit of health is permitted under s. 86, c. 100.

Sec. 43.--In the absence of any person qualified to discharge, a discharge or removal may be ordered by the Commissioners.

_Pauper Patients._

Sec. 25.--The order must contain the name and address of one or more relations of the lunatic, and notice of the death of the lunatic must be sent to such relation.

Sec. 38.--A pauper permitted to be absent on trial from a licensed house or hospital may have such an allowance made to him by order of the Commissioners, Visitors, or committees as would be charged for him were he in the house or hospital.

_Licensed Houses and Hospitals._

Secs. 14 and 15.--No fresh licence can be granted by justices without inspection and report by the Commissioners. Notices of alterations in houses licensed by justices must be given to Commissioners. Their report must be considered by the justices before licence is granted or alterations are consented to.

Sec. 16.--The physician, surgeon, or apothecary not being a licensee, where any such is by law required to reside in or visit a licensed house, must in the metropolitan district be approved of by the Commissioners, and in the provincial district by the visiting justices.

A penalty is imposed on any person infringing the terms of his licence as to numbers, s.e.x, or cla.s.s.

Sec. 18.--With consent of two of the Commissioners, or, in the case of the provincial licensed houses, of two of the Visitors, a person who may have been a patient within five years immediately preceding, may be received as a boarder into a licensed house (extension of c. 96, s. 6).

Sec. 29.--Licensed houses may be visited at any time by one or more of the Commissioners or Visitors, but in the metropolitan district they must be so visited twice in the year, in addition to the present visits by two Commissioners, and in the provincial districts similarly by Visitors. Commissioners and Visitors visiting singly have substantially the same powers of inspection and inquiry as when visiting together. To these the sixty-second section of the Act does not apply.

Sec. 39.--A penalty is now imposed on any officer or servant conniving at an escape.

Sec. 43.--In the absence of any person qualified under ss. 72, 73, c.

100, the Commissioners may order discharge or removal of a patient.

Sec. 38.--Absence on trial may be permitted to patients, in the same way as leave of absence for the benefit of health is permitted under s. 86, c. 100.

_Medical Certificates._

Sec 27.--Where medical certificates have been returned with a written direction of the Commissioners for amendment, and such amendment shall not have been made within fourteen days, the Commissioners may order the patient's discharge.

Sec. 22.--Lunatics so found by inquisition may be received without certificate on an order of the committee, accompanied by an official copy of the order appointing such Committee.[316]

_Workhouses._

The Poor Law Board issued a circular at the same time. The only paragraph which it is of interest to cite here is the following:--"The eighth section empowers the Visitors of any asylum and the guardians of any parish or union within the district for which the asylum has been provided, if they shall see fit, to make arrangements, subject to the approval of the Commissioners in Lunacy and the President of the Poor Law Board, for the reception and care of a limited number of _chronic lunatics_ in the workhouse of such parish or union, to be selected by the superintendent of the asylum and certified by him to be fit and proper so to be removed. The Board are at present not aware of any workhouse in which any such arrangement could conveniently be made; but they will be ready to consider any such proposals on the subject when the Visitors of the Board of Guardians of any union shall find it convenient or practicable to act upon this clause."