A letter to the Metropolitan Commissioners in Lunacy : containing some strictures on the Act of Parliament, and observations on their report / by J. Haslam.

  • Haslam, John, 1764-1844.
Date:
1830
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the Metropolitan Commissioners in Lunacy : containing some strictures on the Act of Parliament, and observations on their report / by J. Haslam. 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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    with his history and with such acts and opinions as amount to insanity in the judgment of those who have personally and separately examined him. These particulars ought to be transmitted by letter to your office, and, as they frequently consist of the most extravagant perversions, or are accompanied by conduct that might be deemed criminal, if the insanity were not clearly established, it is presumed that such documents would not be wantonly exposed. Without this necessary information you will often be disappointed, conceive the person to have been improperly confined, and perhaps urge the liberation of an individual dangerous to the community.. Such exposure of the foundations of medical opinion is always insisted on when evidence of insanity is ten- dered in a court of common law, and especially on an inquisition de lunatico inquirendo, and there appears every reason that the same facilities should be afforded to the Metropolitan Commissioners in Lunacy. To render your Bill still more efficient and useful, the renewal of these certificates at stated periods by competent medical authority, would materially assist your inquiries; and such attestation of the continuance of the individual’s insanity, ought to