On the Prospects of Physicians engaged in Practice in Cases of Insanity

Abstract

Since the following Paper was commenced, the appearance of the “Report from the Select Committee on Lunatics, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 27th July, 1860,” of which Committee Mr. Walpole is the respected Chairman, has, in a considerable degree, relieved the minds of physicians practising in the department of insanity, from the apprehensions occasioned by the draft of a Bill ordered to be printed in February, 1859. It would seem that the evidence brought before the Select Committee in disparagement of the proprietors of asylums for the insane, and in support of the alleged fact of the improper detention of persons in a state of sound mind, was deemed insufficient to warrant the meditated additions to stringent restrictions already existing. All the obnoxious clauses relative to the appointment of Medical Examiners, a kind of unqualified auxiliaries to the Commissioners in Lunacy, and who were to make secret reports, have been abandoned; as well as some other clauses, which had been the source of great and just dissatisfaction.