Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British IslesTuke, Daniel Hack
History
Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British Isles
Tuke, Daniel Hack
Mental health laws -- Great Britain; Mental illness -- Great Britain; Mentally ill -- Care; Psychiatric hospitals -- Great Britain
An Act to alter and amend certain Acts regulating mad-houses in
Scotland, and to provide for the custody of dangerous lunatics, was
passed in June, 1841 (4 and 5 Vict., c. 60). It amended 55 Geo. III., c.
69, and 9 Geo. IV., c. 34. A penalty of £200 and the expenses of
recovering the same might be imposed on persons sending any lunatic to a
mad-house without a licence; persons convicted of receiving lunatics
without a licence, or the required order, might be imprisoned in default
of penalty; the sheriff on application of the Procurator Fiscal might
commit dangerous lunatics; the expenses were to be defrayed out of the
rogue money, if the person had not the means of defraying, or if it
could not be recovered out of his estate, then the same was to be
defrayed by the parish which would be liable for the maintenance of
such lunatic if he or she were a pauper; lunatics might be removed on
application by the Procurator Fiscal; parish pauper lunatics were to be
confined in public hospitals; if no public hospital in the county, the
sheriff might send lunatics to an adjoining county; the death of a
lunatic was to be intimated to the sheriff in writing by the person
keeping the licensed mad-house; fees of licences might be diminished if
the moneys received exceeded the sums required for carrying this Act
into execution.
A form of register was to be kept in all licensed mad-houses in
Scotland, indicating the house; where situated and kept; names and
designations of individuals confined; date of reception; at whose
instance confined, and on whose medical certificate; whether curable or
incurable; date of removal or discharge, and authority for either; date
of death; disease or cause of death, and duration of disorder; name of
medical practitioner; when first called to give special attendance, and
how often he afterwards visited the deceased, with the place of burial.
We must not omit to mention that in 1848 further legislation was
attempted--an attempt, the failure of which was frequently deplored in
the debates of succeeding years. A good Bill designed to amend the law
of Scotland relative to the care and custody of the insane, and to
regulate existing asylums, and to establish asylums for pauper lunatics,
was brought in by the Lord Advocate (Lord Rutherfurd), Sir George Grey,
and the Secretary at War. After the second reading it was referred to a
Select Committee, which included the names of the Lord Advocate, Lord
Ashley, Sir James Graham, Mr. E. Ellice, Mr. Stuart Wortley, and Mr. H.
Drummond. Petitions now poured in from almost every shire in Scotland,
and the Bill had unfortunately to be withdrawn. Undaunted, the Lord
Advocate made another attempt in the following year, but with the same
result.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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