The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-02-10
The Projected Law for the Com an 1 m on
of Alleged LUnRtics.


of Alleged Lunaiics.
In our issue of Friday last we referred to two
projected modes of committing alleged luna
tics to hospitals for the insane. Since then
we have been furnished with a copy of one OF
these proposed acts, which was introduced
into the Senate on Tuesday last.
Nearly forty of the most respectable mem
bers of the Philadelphia bar declared, in their
memorial attached to the bill, that certain of
its sections were Essential to the security of
personal liberty" 1t may also be said in their
support, that they were recommended chiefly
in the Haskell case. by Judge Brewster, before
whom large number of alleged lunatics were
brought within the last year, and discharged
by him as improperly restrained of their
liberty.
The first section of this bill is one we re-
ferred to in our Fridays issue as iudicious
and necessary. 1t provides that the medical
certificate shall be signed and sworn to before
magistrate, the latter testifying to the good
standing of the sgners. This has long been
the practice in England where it has been
found to work WELL
The second section consists Of the wise pro-
mitted to correspond with counsel.
The third and fourth are exactly similar to
those of the State Medical Associations bill,
without any change whatsoever.
The fifth provides that where written
statement, subscribed and sworn to by re-
spectacle citizen, is presented to any judicial
officer, alleging that certain person is sane,
and therefore improperly restrained of liberty
by the keeper of any hospital for the insane,
the Judge shall issue writ of habeas corpus
to have the charge of lunacy tested, when
the onus of proving the alleged lunatic insane
shall rest upon those who are restraining him
of his liberty.
Sections 6, 7, 8, and are precisely those of
| the State Medical Associations bill.
The tenth section provides that Board of
inspectors, consisting Of three practicing ply
sicians and two persons not physicians, shall
be appointed by the Court of Common Pleas
in each judicial district to visit and inspect
| all asylums for the insane.
This also is the law Of England, and was
directly recommended by Judge Brewster in
the Haskell case. II our readers will recall to
their minds the horrible abuses disclosed last
spring by the State Medical Association and
the special commissioner appointed by the
Governor, as being practised towards the in.
sane confined in the free hospitals of the
State, they will see the absolute necessity OF
this provision.
Section IL is the same as that of the Medical
Associations bill.
The twelfth section provides that nothing
in the act shall be so construed as to deprive
the alleged lunatic Of any rights or forms of
action he may enjoy under any present law in
his behalf
We have considered these different sections
with great care, and we find nothing in them
Objectionable, bat on the contrary they seem
to us well calculated to still hepublic demand
for reform, and afford excellent protection to
personal liberty, while at the same time they
entail no onerous burdens or restrictions on
those who labor in behalf of the insane. We
hope the Legislature may see the necessity Of
adopting this bill at an early day, and so settle
this VeXed question.