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.

    418/552 (page 384)
    V.—Certification and General Administration. Statutory certificates—conUh Schedule (G) Lunacy (Scotland) Act, 1857, and Schedule (A) and Sec. 18; Lunacy (ScothiTid) Act, LSG6. Also Vol. 111., p. U!)7. 992. The only other statutory certificate, except the certificate of the superintendent or medical attendant for continued detention (Schedule A.— Lunacy (Scotland) Act, 1866), is the “ six months ” certificate in Schedule G. of the Act of 1857, by which a duly qualified medical person may “ certify on soul and conscience that C. D. is afflicted [state the nature of the disease^ but that the malady is not confirmed, and that I consider it expedient, with a view to his recovery, that he should be placed [specify the house in which the patient is to he kept] for a temjiorary residence of [specify a time not exceeding six months.] ” This certificate refers to “ lunatics received into any private house,” as now regulated under Section 13 of the Act of 1866, though the word “ lunatic ” does not appear in the form itself. Any person suffering from a mental malady which is not confirmed, and for which temporary residence in a private house is expedient, may be included in it. It thus broadens out the field of “ lunacy,” while the plan of the certificate is not unlike that which we propose below—a general qualifying term “ mentally defective ” with the entry of the class of malady which in the particular instance comes within that term. Administrative certificates. J/unacy (Scotland) Act, 1857, Sections 3 anil 9, and Lunacy (Scot'and) Act, 18GG, Section 18. V d. 111., p. ‘283. Vol. III., p. ‘285. Vol III. p, -287. Vol. III., p. 291. Vol. III., p. 292. Vol. III., p. 304a Vol. III., p. ‘293. Vol. III., p. 294. 993. Besides these two statutory certificates there are several that are ad- ministrative, and owe their validity to the general powers of the Board as ap- pointed “ for the superintendence and care of asylums and lunatics.” The certificates and forms, and information relating thereto, will be found in the Appendix to Vol. III. of the evidence : Part I., p. 283. 994. To mentally defective paupers the word “lunatic” is generally applied. When application is made to the General Board of Lunacy to grant sanction for the residence of a pauper lunatic in a jvrivate dwelling specially licensed or other- wise, a statement from the inspector of poor and certificates from two medical persons are required. In these certificates the formula of the certificate of the Act of 1857 has to be followed: that A. B. is lunatic, or insane person, or idiot, or person of unsound mind, and facts observed or communications as to the patient’s insanity or idiocy have to be stated.* For this the order of the sheriff is not necessary ; the approval of the General Board of Lunacy suffices. And removals from an establishment other than an asylum to a private dwelling, and from a private dwelling to an establishment, or from one private dwelling to another, are sanctioned by the Board on the application of the inspector of poor without further medical certificates, until the patient is visited by one of the Board’s officers. 995. In the case of private patients the form of application to the General Board of Lunacy (Form F. 2) to sanction the reception of a private patient into a private dwelling, specially licensed or otherwise, states that the patient “ is of unsound mind, and a proper person for residence in a private dwelling.” And the single medical certificate that accompanies the statement states that the person is of unsound mind and the facts stated as the grounds for the certificate indicate insanit//. In the case of pauper patients, for whose reception into the lunacy wards of a poorhouse the sanction of the Board is required, the medical person (Form C.) certifies that he believes the patient to be of unsound mind and a proper person to be in the lunatic wards. In “emergency” asylum certificates (Form A.) the same phrase, “ of unsound mind,” is used. 996. “ On liberation on trial or probation of a lunatic,” the single medical certificate “ reports and certifies with respect of the patient’s mental state ” without specification of the actual malady by name. It is signed by the asylum superintendent as his authority for the liberation of the patient; and the super- intendent at the same time “ subjoins a statement of particulars of the circum- stances in which it is proposed to place the said patient.” And towards the close of the period of probation the inspector of poor has “To transmit to the Board a medical certificate to the effect either that the patient (1) is recovered, or (2) is still of unsound mind.’’'’ * The certificate of the Act of 1857 refers in the rciiuirod statement of facts to facts “ indicatiiifT insanity.” In the administrative certificate, insanity and idiocy arc separated as the two sub-divisions of “lunacy.”