The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-17 00:00:00

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THE LAW OF. LUNACY.
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_ :...- .2 ... r 0 THE EDITOR OF THE SON.
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.„... ..0 ROIT• ' ' 4 , - - :,-
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Sin,—iour paper of the 20th ult., containing an ar•
tick on the law of lunacy, haring been placed in my
hands, and finding therein that my name had been
brought before the public in a most unjustifiable manner,
I consider it incumbent on me to refute the • erroneous
statements which it contains. •
In the 'first instance, you assert that LordPengtan,,
" declared the law of lunacy to be, that if
.4,137-niedica,l,
man, being the proprietor-of a lunatic asylta,74d there-'
fore having a direct interest in the incarceration oi any'
supposed lunatic. declare that such tAirrptisisiaik;is
required to be pug utiler the care of some. One:: because?
such supposed lunatic labours under it:en-talAisquskni, a
certificate from the medical man fo. 'hat• fiVet,, elect. if
such c; rtificate does not forth snell '•!e;usions, is suffi-
chant to authorise
111
detentionke by of
thse.'cherififil'eate' u-tic;ot'.lannd:
that, it that certificate is hue
other medical mail, stating the person.sp incarcerated is
a lunatic, these two certificates are sufficient to authorise
the detention for an indefinite period of such supposed
lunatic."

Now, Sir, I beg leave to state, that the writer of the •
article in question must have been utterly ignorant of the
subieet on which he commented, nor did Lord Denman
utter anything of the kind in his luminoue observations.
No such certificate as you describe is required trom,any
"
medical man, proprietor of a lunatic asylum ; and it is,
moreover, prohibited in the 49th
section, 8 and 9 Viet.,
c. 100, where it is clearly specified
that no physician,
surgeon, or apothecary, who, or whose father, brother,
son, or partner, is wholly or partly propretor ot; or a re- ,
gular professional attendant in, a licensed house, &e.,
shall sign any certificate for the reception of a patient,
&e. ; that any medical man infringing this clause will be
guilty of misdemeanour."
•
You then proc ed, Sir, to question the validity of me?
dical certificates, when the nature of the delusions are
not minutely specified. Such a statement is not re- ,
quired; for in m, st instances, when a medical man is
called upon to.visit a supposed lunatic, he is an utter
stranger to the party, and can only form his opinion
from the incoherence of his conversation, when his ac-
tions are not violent ; or from the account of the patient
he receives from the parties who have called him in. The
law rcquii•es that the medical Men shall specify in his
certificate " any fact or facts arising from his own ob-
servation, or from the' information of any other person,
upon which he has formed an: opinion that the
person is a lunatic," &c., &c. Therefore does •
the law consider certificate, stating that the
medical man came to the -conclusion that the
.person he visited. Was of unsound mind- from the con-
versation that took place, naturally inferring that such
conversation must haveLheen 'of so incoherent a:nature
as to warrant the conclusion of' the person holdiegit
being of an unsound mind, a sufficient document. But,
even in cases where minute particulars may have been
inserted in the certificate, the law does not consider the
certificate as sufficient to confine a lunatic without fur-
ther inquiry ; end the proprietors of an asylum are
obliged.to send in to the Commissioners in Lunacy
copy of 'the order and certificate on which a patient
was admitted within two days after the admission, that
the Commissioners may themselves examine the order
and certificate, and proceed to visit the patient in the
event ot the order and the certificate not being in confor-
mity with the statute. This provision, Sir, plainly shows
the incorrectness of your essertiou, that the original
certificate " authorised the detention for an indefinite
period of such supposed lunatic."
Not only are the certificates examined by the Com-
missioners, but the law obliges every medical man, pro-
prietor of- an asylum, to enter into a case-book, or
journal, the history of the patient, as far as it can be ob-
tained, with a statement of temperament, age, religion,
profession, an account of any medical treatment to which
he may have been submitted, or of the moral means em-
ployeel, with a weekly statement, if any mechanical
means of restraint or seclusion are resorted to, specifying
the nature of the patient's occupation and conversation.
Now, Sir, in the case of Mrs. Rhodes, an unfortunate
lady in a state of imbecility of mind, who bad assumed
the name of Shuttleworth, hut for whom you seem to take
much interest, this lad was examined within two days
after her admission by three Commissioners, Lord Sey-
mour, Dr. Turner; and Mr. Proctor; she was subsequently
stumbled by two more Commissioners, Dr. Pritchard and
Mr. Campbell, who fouuo her labouring under Senile im-
becility, lied the affidavits of four medical men were
prepared to meet the affidavits upon which a writ of
habeas corpus was applied for, on the plea of the lady not
being of unsound mind—this application having been
made by the person under whose care she resided, the
Rev. Mr. Rowlett, the minister of St. Peter's, Pimlico,
who found the unfortunate lady in a state of utter des-
titution—in rags, covered with ulcers and vermin, and
without the common necessaries or comforts Of life;
when this clergyman considee ed it his duty, as a minister
and a Christian, to have the poor lady removed to a
comfortable asylum; and this application to the Court
of Queen's Bench to discharge the patient was made by
the person under whose care she had then been found.
Now, Sir, do you think that the Judges of the Court
of Queen's Bench would have been justified if, on an al-
leged inaccuracy in the medical certificates, they had
discharged this poor creature, and replunged her in her
former melancholy, destitute state, because, forsooth,
an Old Bailey quibbler sought to prove that a conver-
sation was not a tact? Moreover, this application was
not made at the request or by the authority of the
patient.

I •
I now, Sir, come to the case of Mrs. Cumming, to
which you also refer, statirg "thatlhad consented to her
being taken from the establishment under my core," so
soon as she consented to make a disposition of her pro-
perty in favour of those who had set " the 0611'0 per-
sons" in motion. 'The certificate of the skilful persons
were shown to the writer. Now, Sir, I beg leave to de-
clare, most unequivocally, that there is not one syllable
of truth in this assertion. It is provided in the 72d clause
of the Lunacy Act, that the person who signed the
order for the reception of a patient, may ender such
patient to be discharged. However, it is provided in the
72d section, that this discharge is not to take place if
the medical atter-dant of the patient declare that such
patient is dangerous. Now, Sir, in the case of Mrs.
Cumming, a proposal was made by her counsel to the
family, who, having acceded to it, directed me to dis-
charge her ; and, although convinced, as well as Sir
Alexander Thomson, the experienced physician of Bed-
lam Hospital, the Surrey Asylum, and consulting_
physician 9f the County Asylum of Banwell, and Dr.
Pritchard, a physician of European celebrity, that the
lady was most decidedly of unsound mind, as I could not
declare that she was a dangerous lunatic, she was ac
cordingly discharged by her family. As to your. as-
sertion about " Dr. .Millingen beingcontent to receive the
guarantee of Master Barlow and Mrs. Cumming," I am
utterly at a loss to imagine what you could possibly
mean to convey. Mrs. Cumming was• placed under my
care by her family, according to the provision of the
law. She was withdrawn from my care by her family,
and I could ❑either " inearce rata" her, nor " detain"
her, when legali) discharged.
Your insinuation of my want of " skill" in having
considered Mrs. Cumming, of unsound mind, I can assure
you gives me little concern, when my name is associated
'with those of Sir Alexander Thomson and Dr. Pritchard,
who were of a similar opinion, as I-feel convinced, that
if the jury had net been discharged by t_he arrangement
made on the proposal of the unfortunate lady's own
counsel, little doubt could be entertained as to what
would have been their vereEct.

I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,
J. G. MILLINGEN, M.D., M.A.
First. class Surgeon to the Fever, and late Resident
Physician of the County of Middlesex Lunatic
Asylum at Ilanwell, &c. &c. &c.
have further to alsiothat after failing in ob-
taining a writ of habeas- corpus i rotn the Court of Queen's
Bench, an application was made tc a similar cffLet in the
Court of CommAn_Pleas, which was refused in cbamLers
by Mr. Justice-117111ms.

York House, Battersea, Dec. 12;1846. •
[We have given the above, we believe, correctly, but
it is written in such an illegible hrnd, (moreover, it was

_ • ---
" haclicd copy," and Dr. lqi/lingen, who has for years
ball in the habit of writing for the press, understands
what that means,) that we are Ly no means cer-
tain as to the literal accuracy of the transcript. Dr. Mil-
lingen will perceive that we have omitted three lines which
bear not at all upon his argument, and which might
render it necessary for us to open our columns
to another medical man in reply.—En. Sun.]

adr rgmaypor eaut,r:eil nni
net
zaorl:enwfs
tcth entirelydab
etenitiche
e veeoc:dht
eiotlphdeaernbeddoneeuanot
ttfhButopohofoel
n.
hlcateohtilere.
Io: ecafmasu are sorry
Hood
lastTsmh
lected by publil subscription at the period of Mr. Hood's
death. The pension of 1001 granted by tir Robert Peel
mases with the decease of Mrs. Hood, who lived but a
twelvemonth to enjoy it. We believe that Lord John
Russell has already been applied to by the friends of the
family to continue the pension to the children; but his
Lordship has intimated hi; inability to comply with the
request, since the pension becomes, by the death of Mrs.
Hood, the property of the public. We feel confident that
the wishes and intentions of the public will bo 'best
answered by a new grant of the same trifling amount to
the orphans, to whose departed and highly-gifted parent
that public owes so large a debt of gratitude.
/THE ALLEGED EXTENSIVE EMBEZZLEMENT BY A
ommlssio N AGENT.—A reward has been offered this
week, by public handbill, for the apprehension of Mr.
Thomas Smith, lately carrying on business as a com-
mission agent and cotton merchant, in Strutt-street,
Newmarket-buildings, and well known to the manufac-
turers of the town and county. It would seem from the
icquiries which Mr. Chief Superintendent Beswiek in-
:.tituted, that the accused left Manchester at half-past
eight o'clock on the night of Friday, the 4th in-
stant; and up to last evening we had not heard of
his apprehension. We unth rstand the charge against
Mr. Smith to be one of a very serious nature, in-
volving the fraudulent embezzlement of a sum which has
been variously estimated at from 10,000/. to 16,000/.,
but with respect to which no eccurate information can
be gleaned until the judicial investigation has taken
place. The parties whose names we have heard men-
tioned as being the greatest losers by the defalcation are
Mr. Alderman Shuttleworth, Mr. Bateson, (Liverpool),
and the firm of Messrs. W. G. and J. Strutt, cotten-
thread manufacturers of 1/nhe, who have also a ware-
house in Strutt-street hit whether or not any other
persons have been defrtiuth d has not. yet been made
known. Mr. Smith has resided in Lower Broughton for
some time, and has a family of five children.—Man-
chcster Guardian of yesterday,
ATTEMPTED MURDER OF A POLICE-CONSTABLE:
Yesterday's Government Police Gazette contained the
offer of a reward of 100/. for such information as will
lead to the apprehension and conviction of the individual
who, in the middle of the night, shot at a police-con-
stable named William Summerson whilst on duty at
Ryton, in the county of Durham. ,
We regret to announce the premature demise of
the Lady Harriet HON ard, daughter of the- Earl and
' Countess of Wicklow.