A letter to Sir Henry Halford, Bart., K.C.H., President of the Royal College of Physicians, &c. &c. &c. touching some points of the evidence, and observations of counsel, on a commission of lunacy on Mr. Edward Davies / by G. Man Burrows.

  • George Man Burrows
Date:
1830
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to Sir Henry Halford, Bart., K.C.H., President of the Royal College of Physicians, &c. &c. &c. touching some points of the evidence, and observations of counsel, on a commission of lunacy on Mr. Edward Davies / by G. Man Burrows. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the populace are almost always sure to side with the lunatic, and sometimes liberate him. This interference of course occasions difficulty, and often puts the persons having charge of him in considerable danger. When the patient is going to an asylum or licensed house, the production of the regular certificate generally proves a passport, and stops further inter- ruption. But when the case requires no certificate, if the attendants, whether relations or keepers, are interrogated, and have no document to shew that they have an insane person in charge, they would not only be interrupted, but commonly be defeated in their object. In those cases of removal where a certificate is not understood to be necessary, I, in common with other medical gentlemen, upon a principle of precaution, have been in the habit of sending by the keeper a note, addressed to some one in the house where the lunatic is, specifying that the bearer is the person confided in to take the care of, or to remove him. This was the tenor and object of the note that I sent, on the 4th of August, with my keepers, to take the care of Mr. Davies. The utility of it was proved in this very instance; for the coach was stopped as he was being con- ducted from Furnival's Inn Coffee House to his own house, and he was prevented being released by the production of it. Had a certificate been required, either by law or custom, to remove Mr. Davies home, it was clearly quite as easy for me to have written it as the note which I gave the keepers; and I must have been an idiot indeed not to have pre- ferred the legal course, when it was equally simple, and so much more safe. 2d. Mr. Brougham alleges, that what occurred on my visit to Mr. Davies, on the 31st of July, was not sufficient to warrant my concluding he was insane on the 4th of August. I will detail, therefore, some of the collateral evidence I received to that effect between the 25th of July and 4th of August. When I saw Mr. D. on the 25th, I informed him I should not visit him again before the 30th or 31st, as I was going into the country. Finding no message, on my return, to discontinue my attendance, which any rational person, who so intended, would have sent, 1, of course, paid him a visit. The violence and conduct which I witnessed on my beuig
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