PROOF OF LUNACY.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Your proposal to institute a staff of Certificating Doctors, has one weakness which seems to have escaped your attention. In many cases of doubtful insanity, it is impossible to give s trustworthy judgment without long observation, and the official certifier would often have to rely in great measure on statements- made to him. He would, indeed, act as a Judge of First Instance, rather than as a medical practitioner. But the doctor who had been, or represented himself as having been, in attendance on- the patient would commonly be able to determine the official judgment, and would find himself as much protected as checked. The only true safeguard against wrong would be the rule that every one confined as a lunatic against his will should at first be- taken to a public asylum. As soon as his lunacy was certified' there, he might be removed whither his friends wished. Such & system could be made self-supporting, or at least would be ,less costly and more efficient than a staff of doctors who would have no opportunity of continuously observing the cases on which they
gave their decision.—I am, Sir, &c., Z. 14.
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