The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-03-06 00:00:00

VIE LUNACY LAWS.

Tee Lunacy Acts Amendment Bill, which
has been read a second time in the Upper
House, and of which the Lord Chancellor
is the present sponsor, may be regarded as
the development of a good deal of previous
attention to the delicate and difficult subject
with which it deals. The bill aims at re-
ducing a painful blot on the legal environ-
ment of a highly important feature of our
national social life That legislation is
urgently necessary in the direction of re-
forming the abuses attendant under existing
conditions upon the treatment of persons
alleged to be of unsound mind has long !
been evident to the public ; and it is satis-
factory to find all the law lords in substan-
tial agreement with the popular voice as
regards the matter, and still more so to note
that there is little variance as to what are
likely to be the best means to place things
concerning lunacy on a more just and saferl
footing. The matter is being sensiby dis-
cussed in a non-party spirit. The drafting
of the bill, now handed on to Committee
ste7e, is mainly the work of Lord Selborne,
out of whose keeping it passed at a recent
political crisis; though Lord Halsbury is
ree-mnsible for one or two practical additions
to the projected measure, and the whole
rein edial scheme has been revised and con-
flated by Baron Herschel. The matter
has been in hand since 1878. when the
acy Committee sat, and subsequently
reported the result of their investigations.
No action of an effectual character has since
been taken to carry out the recommenda-
tions of those concerned in the extensive
enquiries conducted so long ago, though it
may reasonably beassumed thatamendments
in the Lunacy Laws would have been ere
now comsumnated, but for changes of Gov-
ernment and the pressure of other legislative
work which has seemed to demand priority.
The delay is, to say the least, unfortunate,
for judicial proceedings have times out of
number shown that though the present
Lunacy Laws seem theoretically full and
evilicient to prevent the perpetration of
wrung, in a.etual practice the whole system
breaks down and fails entirely in many in-
stances. The etatutes provide that upon a
!parson, signing an order for the removal of
another to a private asylum on the ground
of alleged insanity, if the imputation be
baoked by the statement of one other person.
'land two technically qualified medical men
certfy, that the person sought to be incarce-
rated is afflicted as set forth in the order,
statement, and certificates, it shall be larlul
to deprive him of liberty, and treat him at
disenetion as a lunatic. No investigation
need take place, and there is no chance ot
detection of wrongful action, except through
the casual finding of a Lunacy Commis-
sioner's evidence of sanity during a hurried
visit to the asylum, a contingency which it
would be easy enough, given corrupt inten-
tion, to evade. The person declared insane
may be an obnoxious wife whom her husband
desires to rid himself of for base purposes,
or an inconvenient relative encumbering the
way to fortune. Villany can always pule.
chase allies, and, as Mrs. Weldon once put it.
if a crossing sweeper made the statement
corroborative of the assertions of any inter-
ested husband or covetous friend who signed
the asylum admission order, the evidence
wold be amply sufficient, in the eye of the
law, that the poor man or woman, though
really from the slightest taint of insanity.
was in a state of dangerous madness. This
of cOurse would have to be supplemented by
medical testimony. But it has been more
than once proved possible to find a couple
of careless or unqualified or culpable medical
men to fill up the requisite certificate; so
that no absolute security lies in the stipule,-
tam for the dual professional opinion. The
signature of two young medical who have
just passed their examination for their prac
tising qualification, but never came in con-
tact with a person suffering from the subtle
and. deceptive ailments of the mind, will hold
as good in law for this purpose as those of
the most accomplished experts in mental
disease. Two depraved men who have, at
period, of long past rectitude, taken up their
diplomas, but have for years existed be
means of all sorts of questional practices,
may still by a few strokes of the pen shut up
wan, woman, or child in a living tomb. Two
mad doctors, who may be the proprietors of
the very asylum to which the victim is
domed, may add to their income by giving
testimony that so and so is a lunatic; and,
receiving a sum for the maintensuce and at-
tention of each inmate year by year which
Ira \Ts more or less profit, would scarcely be
subject to strong temptation to give a certi-
ficate of sanity effecting the liberty of the
patient." Such being the state of the law,
the wonder is that abuses are not more fre-
quently brought. to light. But many of
these will be set aside by the new bill if it
becomes law, which it is to be earnestly
hoped it will. Lord Herschel' proposes to
practically put an end to the private asylum
by providing agaist the granting of nee
licenses. It also sets a magistrate in inter-
vention between the doctors and the subject,
destroys the status of interested relatives,
els° of possible interested medical asylum
keepers, and appoints that any correspond-
ence of persons confined as lunatics shall
pass unperuscd from the writers to lunacy
.tlicials. These and other provisions of
the bill are all steps in the right directian;
bat the question is, do they go far enough?
We think not. A magisterial signature is
sadly too often placed upon a document,
without the personal investigation it wend
in this case imply, or be valnleless. And
again, what qualiticatione has an ordinary
magistrate, and especially a "'LP." to de-
eide the difficultiee which such an inquiry
would oftentimes present, the medical diffi-
culties we mean. The appointment of a
stall of specially qualified • offic-ers has been
eug;4ested, and though that. would be better
r han the proposed magisterial arrangement,
neither would be nearly so good as making
to holding of an inquest in ever-2,- ease of
,-.lleeed insanitary imperative, the officer
anaragone to the coroner being an expert in
muduess as well as legally qualified, and
_4 Veil the assistance of an intelligent panel
el juror* to hear the fullest necessary Medi-
vn.l teal ethve evidence. We cannot conceive
any oetteriseleruird hilitp‘ialit wrong in the