New-York tribune., 1872-08-29
LUN4CY COMMITMENTS.


of the narrative of The TRIBUNE reporter
who was lately incarcerated in BloOmipgdale
Insane Asylum, is necessarily confined to
the circumstances of his commitment. The
reminder will rapidly follow. But careful
readers of the present statement winch Is
devoted TO showing the insuficiency of the
medical test, the disregard of important regu-
lations of the institution by its own officers,
the utter laxity of the law, and the criminal
evasion of its letter and spirit, will find in 1t
food for deep thought and occasion for great
regret or greater Indignation. 1t clearly es-
tablishes, to our mind, the absolute need of
several important reforms.
In the first place, in regard to the medical
test. Insanity is one of the most peculiar and
unfamiliar OF diseases Very few physicians
ever encounter cases in ordinary practice; and
facilities for the study of it in its various
phases are not provided medical students in
most colleges. In every country its treatment
Is a special study and practice The Eek
"perts" in insanity in this country are
almost exclusively employed in the man
agcment of institutions for insane patients.
Scarcely one out Of every hundred family
physicians knows the legal process for com
selecting "two reputable physicians" as its
agents, appoints those specially and absolutely
ignorant of its requirements, if not indeed
unacquainted with the medical conditions OF
the subject to be examined. The legal forms
and the enforcement Of the law are intrusted
to the lowest grade of our judicial officers,
and in this city to men without any medical
information and little thorough legal training.
The natural consequence is that both medical
and legal examinations are unsldllful and
insufficient, and the forms are slurred over
without thought or consideration for the per-
sonal liberty involved in the proceedings.
ANY commitment without the regular luna
ticO iRqurendO by jury must be defective and
unjust. Illinois, Massachusetts, Iowa, and other
States have returned, in each case after just
such agitation as that through which we are
now passing in this State, to this ancient sys-
TEN. The commitment by a regular family
physician, familiar with the physical and men
tai condition of the subject for one or more
years, has been a system employed at times in
various States, but it is open to the objection
of delay in the treatment of disease which re-
0uires instant care and it is reasonable to sup
pose that as dOctOrsare mortal it might frequently
happen that a family physician, confident in
his own skill or having a regard for his own
fees, would decline to send patient to other
care and to swell other purses than his own.
The great argument against the public ex-
animation by jury is the publicity necessary
to that process, and this is naturally magni-
fed in the eyes of friends of the afflicted per-
sons. But where it is clear that the dis
ease is sometimes employed as a cloak for
crime, publicity appears to be absolutely ne
cessary, and to the jury system, if we would
afford protection to all, we must return. This
protection is accorded to criminals, and is the
right of the unfortunate. The argument against
the system that it will cause delay in the
treatment of the insane is not sound, for theirs
preliminary commitment to await examination
by jury can be made with as much propriety
as that of one accused of crime.
Ii requires neither argument nor illustration,
such as we present in the narrative elsewhere,
to prove the absurdity of the legal examina-
ton by police justices. The truth is that in
hundreds of cases like that cited, there is no
examination such as is certified to in every
commitment form and required by the law.
The magistrate allows no evidence in defense
the prisoner is not brought before him, though |
naturally without counsel, and therefore, in
theory, the client of the court. The motive
of the applicant for commitment is unques-
toned his character is not inquired into
his name is not asked. The standing of the |
physicians is not proved though the law |
requires that the Court shall be satisfied that |
they are "two reputable physicians" The |
whole process of depriving the absent citizen
of his personal liberty is a mere formal process
to a clerk whose long routine service
has reduced him to an mrefecting machine.
Bl0omingdale Institution was years ago one
OF The most perfect institutions Of the kiud ia |