The commissioners present an annual report to the lord chancellor of the state of the different asylums visited by them, which report is laid before parliament.
An important alteration is made in the law concerning the care of single patients. Order" and medical certificates must now be procured for the care of one patient, similar to those used for the admission of patients into licensed houses; and copies of these documents are to be privately sent to and registered by the secretary to the commissioners. This Act only extends to England and Wales, and is amended by 16 & 17 Vice c. 96, and 18 & 11) Viet. c. 105.
The Act 16 & 17 Viet. c. 97, relates to the regulation of lunatic asylums for counties and boroughs, and the maintenance and awe of pauper lunatics; and gives to the commissioners a great power over these institutions, which had formerly been entirely under the control of justices of the peace. The justices of every county and borough are now compelled to erect or to join in the erection of an asylum, where none such already exists. This Act only extends to England and Wales.
The patients who are confined in prisons, hospitals, workhouses, or In the houses of their relatives, are exposed perhaps more than any others to great neglect and mismanagement, and not unfrequently are treated with great, cruelty, even when the intentions of the perties who have charge of them are good, through their entire ignorance of the nature and proper treatment of the disorder.
As to the persons and property of such so-celled lunatics who have not been found lunatic by a jury, the 8 & it Vict. c. 100, § 91, enacts, That whenever the commissioners in lunacy shell have reason to sup pose that the property of any person detained or taken charge of as it lunatic is not duly prutected, or that the income thereof is not duly applied for his maintenance, such commissioners shall make such Inquiries relative thereto as they shall think proper, and report them to the lord chancellor. Sect. 98 enacts, That when any person shall have been received or taken charge of as a lunatic upon an order and certificate under the provialons of that Act, and shall either have been detained as • lunatic for the twelve months then last past, or shall have been the subject of a report by the commissioners in lunacy in {{pursuance of 1 91, the lord chancellor shall direct one of the masters in lunacy to Inquire and report to hire as to the lunacy of such person so confined; and the chancellor is authorised to make orders for the appointment of • guardian or otherwise for the protection, care, and management of such lunatic, and such guardian Is to share the same powers and authorities as a committee of the person of a lunatic found such by inquisition has, and to appoint a receiver or otherwise for the care and management of the estate of such lunatic; and such receiver is to have the same powers LI s le:elver of the estate of a lunatic found such by inquisition Lui ; and the chancellor is also empowered to make orders for the application of the income of the lunatic, towards his snaintenaoce, and the cost of the care and management of his person and estate, and also as to the investment or other application for the purpose of accumulation of the overplue ; but such protection, awe, and management are only to continue so long as such lunatic shall matinee to be detained as a lunatic upon such order or etetificate as 'tumult!, and such further time, not exceeding six months, as the :hancellor may fix ; but the chancellor may in any such case, either before or after directing such inquiry, and whether the master shall have made such inquiry or not, direct a commission in the nature of t writ de lunatito iaqairrnds to issue, to inquire of the lunacy of such isensone In the Roman system, persons of unsound mind (Juries) might be deprived of the managetneut of their property on application to the prtetor by their next of kin. This legiNIRL1011 was either introduced ur
established by the Twelve Tables. The person who had the care of the lunatic, and of his property was called a curator. (Ct.:needle] The Twelve Table* gave the care of the lunatic, to his agnati. In those cases where the law had not provided for the appointment of a curator, the meter named ono. (' Dig.' 27, tit. 10 ; 'Instit.' 1, tit. 23.) The Law with respect to lunatics in Scotland is consolidated by the statute 20 & 21 Viet. c. 71, as amended by the 21 & 22 Vict. c. 89.
The Act 5 & 6 Viet. c. 123, continued by 18 & 19 Viet. e. 76, pro vides for private lunatic asylums in Ireland. The Acts 1 & 2 Geo. IV. c. 33 ; 9 & 10 Viet. c. 115; and 18 at 19 Viet. c. 109, regulate the asylums for the lunatic poor in Ireland.