Observations on the necessity of an extended legislative protection to persons of unsound mind / by Edward D. de Vitré.

  • De Vitré, Edward D.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the necessity of an extended legislative protection to persons of unsound mind / by Edward D. de Vitré. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    5; tlie state of the insane, and the amount of accommodation afforded them, both in Scotland and Ireland, have purposely been made as brief as is consistent with the intent of this inquiry, which has been more easily accomplished in con- sequence of the observations already made on the indepen- dent classes of the insane generally, being equally applicable to the same classes throughout the united kingdom. Whilst then it has been shewn that a majority of our English Counties are yet unprovided with Asylums for their insane poor, and even with those having such provi- sion, that a very large number of pauper lunatics are either in poorhouses or farmed out, without obtaining that atten- tion and treatment, their cases urgently require;—that in Wales, with upwards of a thousand pauper lunatics, there is no public or County Asylum whatever;—that Scotland is equally destitute of such provision;—that even in Ire- land, notwithstanding the district lunatic Asylums estab- lished by law for the protection of the insane poor, the accommodation afforded by them is by no means adequate to the wants of the country ;—that it is injurious to the economy and well-being of pauper Asylums to admit in- dependent or criminal patients ;—that the guardians of the poor and other parochial authorities exercise an arbitrary and unconstitutional power in disposing of pauper lunatics according to their inclination;—that in treating the insane the primary object is their cure, which is best effected in a well-regulated Asylum;—from all this it is contended that a still more comprehensive legislative enactment than yet exists, is required for the protection of this unhappy class of beings throughout the united kingdom. A legislative provision, somewhat similar in character, is claimed for the insane who are in independent circum-
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