First report from the Committee on the State of Madhouses.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee Appointed to Consider of Provision Being Made for the Better Regulation of Madhouses in England.
Date:
[1815]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First report from the Committee on the State of Madhouses. 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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    FIRST REPORT. 200703422 3 INST. PSYCH. The committee appointed to consider of Provision being made for the better Regulation of Madhouses in England, and to report the same, with their Observations thereupon, to The House ; and who were empowered to report the Minutes of the Evidence taken before them from time to time ;—Have, pursuant to the Order of The House, considered the Matter to them referred, and agreed upon the foUowing REPORT :— YOUR Committee, deeply sensible of the importance of the Matter referred to their consideration, have applied themselves with great earnestness to the performance of the duty imposed on them by the House. The Evidence presented herewith, will show how extensive their in. quiries have been. It was their intention to make Observations in detail on the several Heads of the Examination taken before them, and on the several public and private Establishments, for the reception of Insane Persons ; but on reconsidering the whole subject, they have thought it advisable, in the first instance, to make their Report more generaJ, for the reasons which will be stated. Your Committee cannot however hesitate to suggest, with the utmost confidence, from the Evidence they now offer to the House, that some new provision of law is indispensably necessary for insuring better care being taken of Insane Persons, both in England and Ireland, than they have hitherto experienced ; the number of whom appear to be very consider- able ; as the inquiries of the Committee have convinced them, that there are not in the Country a set of Beings more immediately requiring the protection of the Legislature than the persons in this state ; a very large proportion of whom are entirely neglected by their relations and friends. See Evidence, If the treatment of those in the middling or in the lower classes of life, pp-11.41.112.124. shut up in hospitals, private madhouses, or parish workhouses, is looked at. Your Committee are persuaded that a case cannot be found where the necessity for a remedy is more urgent. It will appear on reference to the Evidence (relying principally on the testimony of the persons keeping the houses), that in a few of them, the arrangement is as good as the contracted size of the houses, and the small extent of the ground attached to them, will admit; and that the treat- ment of the inhabitants in them has been kind and proper ;—but it is in proof, that there is just and great cause of complaint against by far the 2l''^49^T21 greater part of the houses of this description, which have hardly, in any • • instance, been built for the purpose, and are incapable of being conve- niently adapted to it. Your Committee have classed their Observations under the following Heads, that each may be referred to as the occasion may arise :— 1st.—Keepers of the Houses receiving a much greater number of See Evidence, persons in them than they are calculated for; and the conse- PP* '8- 25^ 26,27, quent want of accommodation for the Patients, which greatly ^g* ^■^qj'^\xq' retards recovery ; they are, indeed, represented by the Presi- dent of the College of Physicians, and the Physician acting as Secretary to the visiting Commissioners, who must be con- see Evidenca, sidered as the most competent judges on the subject, to be pp. /6. ill. bettercalculated for the imprisonment than the cure of patients. (70.) [A iJ] II. The