Mental Deficiency Act, 1913 (3 & 4 Geo. 5, ch. 28).

Date:
[1913]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Mental Deficiency Act, 1913 (3 & 4 Geo. 5, ch. 28). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    CHAPTER 28. An Act to make further and better provision for the care of Feeble-minded and other Mentally Defective Persons and to amend the Lunacy Acts. [15th August 1913.] Be it enacted by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows Paet I. Power and Manner oe dealing with Defectives. Powers of dealing with Defectives. 1. The following classes of persons who are mentally defective shall he deemed to be defectives within the meaning of this Act:— {a) Idiots; that is to say, persons so deeply defective in mind from birth or from an early age as to be unable to guard themselves against common physical dangers ; {b) Imbeciles; that is to say, persons in whose case there exists from birth or from an early age mental defec- tiveness not amounting to idiocy, yet so pronounced that they are incapable of managing themselves or their affairs, or, in the case of children, of being taught to do so; {c) Feeble-minded persons; that is to say, persons in whose case there exists from birth or from an early age mental defectiveness not amounting to imbecility, yet so pronounced that they require care, supervision, and control for their own protection or for the protection of others, or, in the case of children, that they by A3 1 A.D. 1913. Definition of defectives.