Narrative of the recent difficulties in the Provincial Lunatic Asylum in Canada West : dedicated to the Christian community, and to the presiding officers of lunatic asylums in Europe and America.

  • Park, Geo. H. (George Hamilton)
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Narrative of the recent difficulties in the Provincial Lunatic Asylum in Canada West : dedicated to the Christian community, and to the presiding officers of lunatic asylums in Europe and America. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    The documents placed before me show that there is no foundation for these prejudicial assumptions, and there are no qualifications in Ilungertord as a keeper, to compensate for this graiHitoii8 misbehaviour. In the absence of other nuthority to ant in the course of the day, I hnve deemed it my duty at once to exempt the Steward, and myself, from his further services. ] have accord- ingly requested the Steward to suspend him fiora his duties, report the case to iheCommi»- ■ioners at their next meeting, and lo make lempoiary provision to supply the deficiency. Jane Hamilton, being still an invalid and temporarily relieved of her duties, there is no necessity for considering immediately the part sne seems to have taken in this affair. But I have requested the Steward not to place her oguin on duty until further advised. JOHN ROLPH, Acting Med. Siipariniendent. The letter embodied in this minute having been addressed to the Rev- Commissioner Roaf, and received by him, it was in his power to dispose of it in any way he pleased. Many courses were open to him. He might have put it into the fire ; he might have returned it to Hungerford, with the admo- nition of a friend ; but, when the Rev. Commissioner Roaf decided to take action on it in an official character, it became him to observe and not to violate the By-laws of the Ins itution —laws which, when once enacted and published, are equally binding upon all. By reference to these laws, the reader will observe that the incidents of the week belong to the visiting Commissioner and the Medical Supetintendent; to both of whom (as well as to the Board at their weekly meeting) the Steward is bound to report any misconduct of the keepers or servants, or any other irregularity occm ring in the House. The greatest confusion, if not collision, would obviously be hazarded, should all the eleven members of the Board, at their pleasure, transgress the laws by ob- truding u;ton every matter their officious interference and conflicting directions ; and leave the medical superintendent, the visiting commissioner, and all the household, perplexed whom to obey or what to do. It would be like eleven physicians intermeddling each by his prescription, with an unfortunate patient, who, however well he might be managed by one of them, would certainly perish under the nostrums of all ! Decorum, therefore, required the Rev. Commissioner Roaf, as a minister and a gent'eman.to abstain from any unwarrantable obtrusion of himself upon the domestic events of the week. He might, indeed, have kept the letter in his pocket until the next meeting of the Board, and have left them to take action on it. It was further open to him to confer with the medical superin- tendent, who is required by the by-laws generally to superintend every thing connected with the internal management of the institution. If he entertained any unworthy jealousies respecting the authority and influence of the medical superintendent, he had the further choice of putting the matter into the hands of the visiting commissioner, Professor Beaumont. The other commissioners were not strangers to this delicacy of official deportment ; for, when the steward reported to Mr. Cawthra the suspension, and the cause of it, and the other objections to Hungeiford as a keeper, that gentleman said V he could not interfere, but sent his compliments to Professor Beaumont, and that were he visiting commissioner he would take upon himself to discharge him. But the Rev. Commissioner Roaf, treating superciliously both the medical superintendent and visiting commissioner, stept out of his sphere in the assumption of an extra-visitorial function (never assumed before) and brouo-ht the letter, the writer of it, and the officer offended by it, into immediate col- lision. Having thus presumed to intermeddle, an opportunity presented itself