The present position of the insane poor under private care in Scotland / by T. W. L. Spence.

  • Spence, T. W. L. (Thomas William Leisk), 1845-1923.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The present position of the insane poor under private care in Scotland / by T. W. L. Spence. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    ■ ■' WW | \m The present position mJ^Jr of the Insane Poor under Private Care in Scotland BY T. W. L. SPENCE Secretary to the General Board of Lunacy, Edinburgh. Supervision of the Insane Poor in Scotland prior to establishment of General Board of Lunacy. The State supervision exercised over the administration of the laws for the relief of the ordinary poor in Scotland is committed to the Local Government Board. Formed}' this Board, which up to 1894 was known as the Board of Supervision for Relief of the Poor, exercised also the sole control in matters relating to the lunatic poor ; but the report made in i857 by the Royal Commission, appointed two years before to enquire into the state of lunatics and lunatic asylums in Scotland, disclosed a condition of matters so highly unsatisfactory as to lead to the passing of the existing Lunacy Act of 1807, under the provisions of which the control of matters relating to the insane poor was taken from the Board of Supervision and committed to the General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy (hereinafter referred to as the Board) created by that Act, to which Board was committed not only the control of the insane poor, but the supervision of all establishments used for the reception of lunatics, and of all lunatics in Scotland, both private and pauper, wherever placed, with the sole exception of insane prisoners, and of insane persons main- tained in private dwellings from private sources ; and even these last named persons are placed by the law under the Board's control, if they are subjected to compulsory confinement or to harsh treatment. The unsatisfactory arrangements for the care and supervision of the insane, which the General Board of Lunacy was created in 1857 to reform, were not due to any failure of duty on the part of the Board of Supervision itself, but because that Board possessed neither die statutory powers necessary to effect reforms, nor had at its disposal the staff of inspecting