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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    *2 In 1808 another Act was passed, (48 Geo. III. c. 9G) which was afterwards repeatedly amended, empowering justices of the peace to erect County Lunatic Asylums in their respective Counties, solely, or in conjunction with, another County; and to appoint a committee of visiting justices, in whom should be vested, for the time being, the general management of the said Asylum. The preamble to this Act is most apropos to the present inquiry. It states that “whereas the practice of confining such lunatics and other insane persons, as are chargeable to their respective parishes, in gaols, houses of correction, poor-houses, and houses of industry, is highly dangerous and inconvenient,” that it had therefore become necessary to remedy the evil. It will be shewn, in the course of the following observations, that the danger and inconvenience complained of in 1808 still exist, though, perhaps, in a mitigated degree; and notwithstanding the above-mentioned act was repealed in 1828, and another act (9 Geo. IV. c. 4*0) passed with more extended powers, yet its provisions have never been thoroughly carried out, and much yet remains to be done for persons of unsound mind. The great defect of the last-mentioned act, which is framed solely for the better care and protection of the insane pauper, consists in its not rendering it imperative on Justices of the Peace, scpei'ately, or in conjunction with another County, to make ample provision in their respec- tive Counties for their insane poor, as they are otherwise fully empowered to do by the provisions of this act. The parliamentary returns of pauper-lunatics for Eng- land and Wales, made in the year 1837, shew that there were then in all 13,6G7 paupers of unsound mind charge- able to tit ir respective parishes. Of these 4,271 were