The present state and prospects of psychological medicine : with suggestions for improving the laws relating to the care and treatment of lunatics / by Joseph Seaton.

  • Seaton, Joseph
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The present state and prospects of psychological medicine : with suggestions for improving the laws relating to the care and treatment of lunatics / by Joseph Seaton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The Commisioners (excepting in special cases) to make their -visitations singly, instead of in pairs, each Commis- sioner having his own district. By this arrangement I have no doubt that the appointment of two additional Commis- sioners (increasing the Visiting Commissioners from six to eight) would fully meet the additional duty arising ft-om the abolition of the visitorial powers of the Magistrates. The visitorial powers of the Commissioners to stand as at present, excepting that their right of inspection should be limited to such parts of the house as are really occupied by patients, unless under special circumstances and under an authority from the Lord Chancellor for the special occasion. I would suggest that the Commissioners should be invested with a character and authority which they do not at present possess, viz., that each Commissioner should be constituted Official Committee of all patients in his district, with power to remove or prevent the removal of a patient. The prin- ciple upon which I would create this power is, that as soon as a person has been duly certified to be insane, he should become, ipso facto, a Ward of the Lord Chancellor; public policy demands that the Lunatic should have this protection, at the same time the feelings and wishes of the relatives should be duly respected and, therefore, if in his character of Official Committee the Commissioner should, contrary to the wishes of relatives, remove or refuse to sanction the re- moval of a patient, he should be required to report to the Chancellor the grounds for so doing, furnishing the parties interested with a copy so as to enable them to appeal to the Court if they thought fit. This plan could not possibly interfere with the proper exercise of the discretion of re-
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