THE STILL UNPROTECTED LI - NA.TIC.
IT really is "too bad" that some of the worst abuses in the unre- formed lunacy system should survive to. the present day ; but such appears to be the fact. Admiral Sininearez has just published an unpretending little pamphlet on the oubiect, which does no more than collect from the pages of the lust report of the Commissioner* in Lunacy certain plain facts, with the addition of facts from other statements, and one or two within the Admiral's own knowledge. But the facts are all of a kind the possibility of which ought to have ceased years ago. There are now in licensed asylums, besides 236 'heneery luna- tics, 4430 private patients, and 12,982 parochial lune-nes. When we remember that these persons are, by the nature of their con- finement, more or less helpless, and that many of them are per- sons in circumstances which rendered their confinement an object of mercenary interest to other persons, we shall see the necessity for extending a most complete protection over them. Neverthe- less, there are still asylums which are ill-kept, comfortless, and unhealthy ; there are still places in which the patients are sub- jected to personal ill-treatment and indignities; and the property of lunatics is still under a very imperfect protection indeed. We need not give many specimens in support of this statement. The Commissioners mention a place where five families were residing as boarders, and detained against 'their will, without a certificate. They mention another place, where the airing-courts are "small and confined," 'more like "the courts of a gaol than recreation- grounds for those suffering from mental, maladies," while the day- rooms are "gloomy and confined," and the institution is deficient in lavatories and similar conveniences. At Bellevue Honse they found a female fastened by the leg to a seat in the yard; and two male patients, feeble and paralyzed, were strapped to their chairs to prevent their falling forward, one of them suffering from sores, and the other "in a wet and dirty state." In the Norwich In- firmary Asylum, the dap-rooms are "mall and, gloomy, badly lighted, and indifferently:warm '- the beds are ,small, and enclosed in tick covers." At Castletcm Lodge, a. licensed house, patients are "allowed to be in bed without any bodily ailment." Even such things ought no longer-to exist. Admiral Saumarez relates, within his personal knowledge or that of gentlemen with whom he is acquainted, instances of vio- lent treatment, for a very trifling offence or no offence at all, which are but too probable under, the present defective surveil- lance. In one place a lunatic was used as a servant, ordered about in an arbitrary manner by a keeper, and even kicked to expedite his movements. Another, a Chancery patient with an income of 600/. a year, was employed in menial and most humiliating occu- pations; pations ; and on one occasion, for the trifling offence of throwing a bone over a wall, was beaten by a keeper. A return to the House of Lords shows that there were 514 luna- tics under the protection of Chancery. Of these, 36 had incomes not ascertained ; 99 had less than 100/. a year; 117 less than 200L; • •94 less than 4001.; 56 less than 600/.; 47 less than 1000!.; and 65 more than 1000/. The total income of the 478 is 281,9071., of which 177,825/. is devoted to the maintenance of the patients. In many cases a lunatic is intrusted to the care of a "committee," who has an allowance for the patient; but it seems the committee is no more bound to account for the details of the money intrusted to him than a schoolmaster is for the amount expended in victuals for the boys. Admiral Saumarez asserts that the committee has the power to appropriate what he pleases, after appropriating a portion of the income to the patient. "The records of the pro- ceedings in lunacy show that the Members of Parliament have re- ceived, and may at this moment be receiving, a portion of such unhallowed spoil. Only last autumn, a solicitor in my presence referred, before the Master, to a Member of Parliament receiving 200/. a year in this manner."
The Commissioners in Lunacy do not appear to have time to visit all the asylums in the country more than twice a year on the average ; and they visit in districts, so that their arrival is generally in some degree calculated. In short, the machinery for securing the protection of lunatics, in property, health, and treatment, ap- rare still to be confessedly inadequate. The House of Commons began the inquiry into this subject in 1816—less than one year after the conclusion of the war: the whole of the peace has inter- vened, and although immense improvement has been made, still the greatest abuses are possible. We incline to agree in the opinion that if Lord St. Leonards had been allowed, he would have finished off the work better. Evidently, it is possible to secure almost perfect protection for lunatics : but perhaps it would re- quire more outlay of money : and certainly the Commissioners would need to be strengthened in power, numbers, and the means of locomotion.
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