Report of the Royal Commission on the care and control of the feeble-minded, Volume VIII.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the Royal Commission on the care and control of the feeble-minded, Volume VIII. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    384/552 (page 352)
    D.-PROCEDURE IN REGARD TO MENTALLY DEFECTIVE PERSONS, (d)—Modifications of the Lunacy Act, 1890- (Recommendations LXVIII.-LXXI.) Recommendation LXXI.—(cont.) [Lunatics] mentally defective persons .so found by inquisition. Lunacy Act, 1890, Section 12 :— Reception after Inquisition. 12. A [lunatic] mentally dcfecMve person so found by inquisition may be received in an institution or house for riunatics] mentally defective persons or as a single patient upon an order signed by the committee of the person of the [lunatic] mentally defective person and having annexed thereto an office copy of the order appointing the committee, or if no such committee has been appointed, upon an order signed by a [Master] Legal Commissioner or a Judge oj the High Court. Lunacy Act, 1890, Section 13 :— [Lunatics] mentally defective persons not under proper care and control or cruelly treated or neglected. Summary Reception Orders. 13.—(1.) Every constable, relieving officer, and overseer of a parish or medical officer of a union or representative of the Committee of any Council of a County or County Borough for the care of the mentally defective who has knowledge that any person within the district or parish of the constable, relieving officer, or overseer or medical officer of a Poor Law pai ish or Union, or the Committee who is [not a pauper and] not wandering at large, is deemed to be a [lunatic] mentally defective person and is not under proper care and control, or is cruelly treated or neglected by any relative or other person having the care or charge of him, shall within three days after obtaining such knowledge give information thereof upon oath to a justice being a judicial authority under this Act. (2.) Any such justice, upon information on oath of any person whomsoever, that a person [*within the limits of his jurisdiction] [not a pauper and] not wandering at large, is deemed to be a [lunatic] mentally defective person and is not under proper care and control, or is cruelly treated or neglected as aforesaid, may himself visit the alleged [lunatic] mentally defective person, and shall, whether making such visit or not, direct and authorise [any two medical practitioners whom he thinks fit] the Medical Officer, or one of the Medical Officers of the Committee of the Council of the County or County Borough for the care of the mentally defective, or a certifying medical practitioner, to visit and examine the alleged [lunatic] men- tally defective person, and to certify [their] his opinion as to his mental state, and the justice shall proceed in the same manner so far as possible, and have as to the alleged [lunatic] mentally defective person the same powers as if a petition for a reception order had been presented by the person by whom the information with regard to the alleged [lunatic] mentally defective person has been SWOrn. (3.) If upon the certificate of the medical [practitioners] practitioner who [examine] examines the alleged [lunatic] mentally defective person, or after such other and further inquiry as the justice thinks necessary, he is satisfied that the alleged [lunatic] mentally defective person is a [lunatic] mentally defective person, and is not under proper care and control, or is cruelly treated or neglected by any relative or other person having the care or charge of him and that he is a proper person to be taken charge of and detained under care and treat- ment, the justice may, by order, direct the [lunatic] mentally defective person to be received and detained in any Institution [for lunatics] Receiving House ot Reception Ward, home or house for mentally defective persons [to which, if a pauper, he might be sent under this Act],/or not more than fourteen days, and the constable, relieving officer, or overseer Medical Officer of a Union, or representative of the Committee upon whose information the order has been made, or any constable whom the justice may require so to do, shall forthwith convey the [lunatic] mentally defective person tO the Institution, home or house or to the Receiving House or Ward named in the order, emd the Medical Officer of the Committee of the County or County Borough for the care of the mentally defective shall, loithin the said fourteen days, ascertain to what In- stitution or house the mentally defective person may most suitably he admitted, and shall, with the approval of the Committee, have him admitted to that Institution or house. [Notice to be given'v of pauper lunatic I who ought to be sent to an asylum J “Lunacy Act, 1890, Section 14 : — Note.—This is probably unnecessary in view of other alterations. 14-—(1.) Every medical officer of a union who has knowledge that a pauper resident within the district of the officer is or is deemed to be a lunatic and a proper person to be sent to an asylum, shall, within three days after obtaining such knowledge, give notice thereof in writing to the relieving officer of the district, or, if there is no such officer, to an overseer of the parish where the pauper resides. (2.) Every relieving officer and every overseer of a parish of which there is no relieving officer, who respectively have knowledge, either by notice from a medical officer or otherwise, that any pauper resident within the district or parish of the relieving officer or overseer is deemed to be a lunatic, shall, within three days after obtaining such knowledge, give notice thereof to a justice having jurisdiction in the place where the pauper resides. * (3.) A justice, upon receiving such notice, shall by order require the relieving officer or overseer giving the notice, to bring the alleged lunatic before him or some other justice having jurisdiction in the place where the pauper resides at such time and place within three days from the time of the notice to the justice as shall be ^ appointed bv the order.