Commitment, detention, care and treatment of the insane : being a report of the fourth section of the International Congress of Charities, Correction and Philanthropy, Chicago, June, 1893 / edited by G. Alder Blumer, A. B. Richardson.

  • Richardson A. B. (Alonzo B.)
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Commitment, detention, care and treatment of the insane : being a report of the fourth section of the International Congress of Charities, Correction and Philanthropy, Chicago, June, 1893 / edited by G. Alder Blumer, A. B. Richardson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    10/204 (page 4)
    they (lid not already exist, and govern them when erected. The greatest power given to the general board was to eretjt asylums and assess the counties for them if the county authorities were abso- lutely recalcitrant; but this power has never been used or even threatened. They had to do Avith the authorities in each parish who attended to the poor and initiated all steps for dealing with their insane, and these authorities were the governors of the poor- houses and responsible for the single insane who were boarded out. In addition to these, they had to do with the insane who had prop- erty to see that they were well treated by their relations and got the benefit of their means for their own comfort and advantage. In very few instances were these powers made autocratic, so that much room was left for convincing, for persuading and for edu- cating all those in any way directly responsible for the insane. Certain clauses of the act constituted the board as the arbiter between local bodies if disputes or opposing interpretationa of the meaning of the statute should arise. They were empow- ered to institute books, and schedules, and forms which should be uniform for all asylums, and their use binding on all. If the statutory forms of admission were legally complied with, they had no direct power of dischai'ging a patient from an asylum. No power was given them to be u roving commission to go about asylums and judge for themselves as to the sanity of the patients^ and to discharge them if they considered them sane. When such was their opinion about a case they had to call in two independent medical men to examine the patient and to report to the board; on that report only they could act and order his discharge. As the sheriff had to grant all orders for the admission of patients into asylums, a power of discharge was vested in him as well as in the board, but only on the report of two medical men. The real authority for the discharge of patients when they were well enough to leave an asylum was to be the physician-superintendent. A clause rendered it lawful to treat recent cases of insanity Avith- out sending them to asylums, and not necessarily in their own houses, for six months, with a view to recovery, without any formal medical certification and with no judicial order whatever. The board was allowed to grant authority for the transfer of a patient from one asylum to another and for liberation on probationfor any period under twelve months. Such being the general provisions of the Scottish Lunacy Act