Report by Her Majesty's Commissioners appointed to inquire into the state of lunatic asylums in Scotland : and the existing law in reference to lunatics and lunatic asylums in that part of the United Kingdom. With an appendix.

  • Scotland. Royal Lunacy Commission.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report by Her Majesty's Commissioners appointed to inquire into the state of lunatic asylums in Scotland : and the existing law in reference to lunatics and lunatic asylums in that part of the United Kingdom. With an appendix. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    54/944 (page 12)
    Law of Lunacy: Hceiises for tliG rcceptioii, and the care and confinement TrLTinentof of lunatics, witliHi tlicir respective counties; and any Person. person keeping a house for the reception, and care and roN^and confinement of lunatics, or detaining any such person SMr' therein, without such license, is liable to a penalty Wai ran island of £200 for cach offencc, besides the expense of recover- Licenses. ^^iQ Same; or, in lieu thereof, to be confined for a period not exceeding three calendar months. This penalty is extended to all persons sending or delivering, 4&5Vict.c.60. or being accessory to sending or delivering, any lunatic, or any person as such, without a license for that purpose, to the custody of such persons. The licenses must specify the name, description, and age of each lunatic, and must be renewed every year. The Sheriff has the power of recalling them, on the report of two medical persons, as set forth in the Act, In reference to the form of licensing these private establishments, there is an unfortunate ambiguity in the statutes. Sundry expressions seem to indicate that the Legislature contemplated that such houses should be licensed generally, for the reception of such lunatics as might be sent to them, under warrants from the Sheriff; while others speak of the license as applicable to the person of each individual patient, or as being in truth a mere license or permission for his detention in such house. Notwithstanding that the former of these views has the sanction of an obiter dictum of the Lord President of the Court of Session, in the case of Straiig, Jan. 19, 1849, the latter view has generally prevailed in practice, and the usual course is not to license the houses, but to adject to the warrant or order for the confinement of each lunatic that is sent to them, a license for his deten- tion therein. We shall have occasion to revert to this subject afterwards, as having, in our opinion, an import- ant bearing on the practical fitness of these establish- ments for the purposes for M'hich tliey are intended. No person can be lawfully received as a lunatic into any house kept for the reception and confinement of lunatics, whether it be a private licensed house, or a public asylum, or hospital, without a warrant or order from the Sheriff of the county in which such establish- ment is situated, who is bound to satisfy himself as to