Annual report for the year 1911 : (14th year of issue) / Metropolitan Asylums Board.

  • Metropolitan Asylums Board (London, England)
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Annual report for the year 1911 : (14th year of issue) / Metropolitan Asylums Board. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    (Hi.) The Mentally Defective. The Local Government Board Order, dated 15th May, 1867, included the “ insane ” amongst the classes of poor for whose reception and relief the Board was constituted. A further Order, dated 18th 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 detained in the workhouse. 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 2nd 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 29th 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 m 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. (iv.) Children. The provision of a training ship for the training of boys for sea service wras sanctioned by the Local Government Board in 1875, under the terms of the Metropolitan Poor Amendment Act, 1869. [32 & 33 vict., c. 63, s. n.] By Orders of the Local Government Board, dated 2nd April, 1897, and 11th September, 1908, the Board were constituted as the central metropolitan authority for dealing wuth various classes of poor law children, the sick and convalescent, those suffering from ophthalmia and ringworm and the mentally defective (see above). Under the first of these Orders the Board also provided for juvenile offenders from 1902 to 1910, vfhen this branch of wrork was transferred to the County Council. (v.) Casual Poor. On the 10th 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 poor of the metropolis. The Order also provided under the Pauper Inmates’ Discharge and Regulation Act, 1871, that the Managers of the Metropolitan Asylum District should be the Managers of the new district. Prior to the issue of this Order, every metropolitan board of guardians was required by the Metropolitan Houseless Poor Act, 1864, to provide casual wards for “ destitute wayfarers and foundlings.” [34 & 35 vict., c. ios, s. 10. 27 & 28 vict., c. 116, s. 5.] As contemplated in the Casual Paupers Order the Local Government Board on the 28th March, 1912, issued the Metropolitan Casual Wards (Transfer) Order, 1912, transferring to the Managers on terms prescribed therein those of the Casual Wards provided under the Act quoted, wdiich it was proposed to continue. The effect of these two Orders was to centralise the control under the Board, from the 1st April, 1912, of twenty-four casual wards hitherto administered by the separate boards of guardians.