Annual report for the year 1914 : (17th year of issue) / Metropolitan Asylums Board.

  • Metropolitan Asylums Board (London, England)
Date:
1915
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Annual report for the year 1914 : (17th year of issue) / Metropolitan Asylums Board. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The Board receives from the several medical officers of health notifications of infectious disease occurring in the metropolis, and publishes information relating thereto. [Infectious Disease (Notification) Act, 1889 (52 & 53 Vic., c. 72), and Public Health (London) Act, 1891 (54 & 55 Vic., c. 76), s. 55, s.s. (4).] (u.) Sanatoria and hospitals for tuberculous patients. The Board has entered into arrangements under which it provides accommodation for tuberculous patients in the county of London as required by the Insurance Committee for the county [National insurance Acts, 1911 to 191:1, I & 2 Geo. 5, c. 55, and 3 & 4 Geo. 5, c. 37]; and the question of providing accommodation for the dependents of insured persons and for non-insured persons is under consideration. (Hi.) Ambulance service. By the Poor Law Act, 1879 [42 & 43 Vic., c. 54, s. 16], superseded by sec. 79 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, the Board was empowered to provide an ambulance service for the removal of patients. (iv.) The mentally defective. The Local Government Board Order, dated 15 May, 1867, included the “ insane ” amongst the classes of poor for whose reception and relief the Board was constituted. A further Order, dated 18 May, 1875, defined the persons to be admitted into the Board’s imbecile asylums as such harmless persons of the chronic or imbecile class as could be lawfully retained in a workhouse ; but no dangerous or curable persons such as would under the statutes in that behalf require to be sent to a lunatic asylum shall be admitted. A Local Government Board Order, dated 2 April, 1897, included feeble-minded children amongst the classes of poor persons to be received by the Board, and authority was subsequently given for the retention of these cases after 16 years of age. The provisions in this behalf are now incorporated in an Order dated 29 December, 1911, and called the Metropolitan Asylums (Mentally Defective Persons) Order, 1911, which defines the mentally defective persons to be received as persons not certified as lunatics, who by reason of mental defect are incapable of receiving proper benefit from ordinary instruction, or cannot be properly trained in association with other persons in ordinary schools or institutions, or are incapable of using ordinary means or precautions for protecting themselves from injury or improper usage or treatment, or are incapable of maintaining themselves by work ; provided that any such poor person on admission into an asylum belonging to the Metropolitan Asylum Managers shall not exceed 21 years of age. (v.) Children. The provision of a training ship for the training of boys for sea service was sanctioned by the Local Government Board in 1875, under the terms of the Metropolitan Poor Amendment Act, 1869 [32 & 33 Vic., e. «3, s. 11.] By Orders of the Local Government Board, dated 2 April, 1897, and II September, 1908, the Board was constituted as the central metropolitan authority for dealing with various classes of poor law children, the sick and convalescent, those suffering from ophthalmia and ringworm and the mentally defective (see above). LTnder the first of these Orders the Board also provided for juvenile offenders from 1902 to 1910, when this branch of work was trans¬ ferred to the London County Council. (vi.) Casual poor. On 10 November, 1911, the Local Government Board issued the Metropolitan Casual Paupers Order, 1911, forming a district conterminous with the existing Metropolitan Asylum district for the relief of the casual