A letter to the Right Honourable the Earl of Shaftesbury etc. etc. etc. on the laws which regulate private lunatic asylums : with a comparative view of the process 'de lunatico inquirendo' in England and the law of 'interdiction' in France : to which are added a few observations on the causes of insanity and improvement in its treatment during the last twenty-five years / by Edward J. Seymour.

  • Seymour, Edward J. (Edward James), 1796-1866.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the Right Honourable the Earl of Shaftesbury etc. etc. etc. on the laws which regulate private lunatic asylums : with a comparative view of the process 'de lunatico inquirendo' in England and the law of 'interdiction' in France : to which are added a few observations on the causes of insanity and improvement in its treatment during the last twenty-five years / by Edward J. Seymour. 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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    P 11 E r AC E. It would indeed be an example of presumption if the author were to oifer suggestions on the difficult subject of the laws in reference to lunacy, without having had more than ordinary opportunities both for observation and thought on the subject. Eight years one of the Metropolitan Commissioners in Lunacy, obliged to resign because its duties were too heavy, when joined with the daily service of a great hospital, combined with a fair share of private practice, the author has, during the twenty years which have elapsed since that resignation, had as much experience of the medical treatment of this disease as any physician has had, who has not made it his sole and exclusive study. Without interest in any asylum, unconnected with any licensed house, the results of observation on their management are free from any personal feeling, while few can have been enabled to take a more extensive view over the whole subject, medical, moral, and medico-legal. The author has endeavoured to compress his most important observations within as small a compass as possible. ■<‘A