ordinary thing-one case in ten thousand-kindling the wrath of every newspaper writer in the land, and calling for special and summary legislation, but an every-day occurrence, exciting as little feeling as the most common operations of nature. We are told very calmly that such wrongs are part of the price we pay for public order and good government. For several years past there has been manifest at each session of the State Legislature a disposition to amend the law relating to the isolation of the insane. This disposition is founded upon misconception, alike of the nature of mental diseases and of the actual operations of the present statutes. Numerous propositions have been made, most of them arising from groundless suspicion of injustice in some particular case; or from an ill defined apprehension that medical men, as a class, are not to be trusted with the professional discretion now vested in them by law; or again, from distrust of the competency caution, or integrity of the magistrates empowered to grant warrants of commitments. For one or all of these reasons it seems to be assumed by a considerable number of unnecessarily alarmed philanthropists that "something must be done" by the Legislatuae to check some actual or possible wrong; but it does not seem to have occurred to those who have shown the most earnestness in the matter that the best welfare of the insane themselves is the primary interest involved, and that any provision of law which obstructs the early treatment of their disease by the best known methods, sacrifices their good to an imaginary safeguard for people who are in no real danger whatever. I believe that any competent and fair-minded inquirer who would give a few hours to the examination of the lunacy laws of half a dozen different States, and avail himself of the published statements of those familiar with their operations, would freely admit that the law of New York is not only more stringent now than that of any neighboring State, but that it is so much the less favorable to the cure and prevention of insanity among its citizens, and, for the same reason, more conducive to the increase of insane pauperism. The interpretation of the law by the committing magistrates is far from uniform, and in some instances, as where the presence of the patient in the court-room is exacted, it is as inhumane as it is unsound. Some police justices refuse to grant commitments at all unless the patient is to be placed in a State or county asylum, a limitation which the law does not sanction, and which is unreason ably annoying to the deposing physicians and to the families of the patients. In direct contrast to this is the opinion and practice of a magistrate of long and large experience, who informs me that he regards the sole duty imposed upon him by the statute, to the exercise of a sound discretion in judging of the respectability of the attesting physicians, as well as of the consistency and probable truth of their statements, leaving the selection of the institution in which the patient is to be placed to the decision of the relatives. This construction of the law must be regarded by unbiassed judges as equally creditable to the magistrate, and just to all parties interested. The law of Rhode Island, drafted by the able expert from whose writings I have drawn so largely in this communication, contains this section as its principal clause: "Insane persons may be placed in a hospital for the insane by their legal guardians, or by their relatives or friends in case they have no guardians, but never without the certificate of one or more responsible physicians, after a personal examination made within one week of the date thereof; and this certificate to be duly acknowledged before some magistrate or judicial officer, who shall certify to the genuineness of the signature and the respectability of the signer." In the event of the dissatisfaction of any citizen at the confinement of any person under this law, any high judicial' officer of the State is authorized, on application being made to him, to appoint a commission of not less than three persons, including a lawyer and a physician, whose report upon the question raised shall virtually decide it. "Under such provisions the insane may be promptly, quietly, and, with a few possible exceptions, rightfully placed by their friends in some hospital for the insane." The foregoing remarks upon a matter which has been most forcibly pressed upon the consideration of the governors and officers of the asylum during the past year, may have been unduly extended, but this may be atoned for by an apposite conclusion in the further language of Dr. Ray: "Justice to all parties requires some such legislation as we have indicated. That it would prevent all popular clamor we do not believe. Inasmuch as the notion in question that sane people are shut up on pretense of insanity-has little or no foundation in reason, it could hardly be expected that it would be amenable to reason. As long as men are swift to believe any plausible story of wrong-doing, without inquiry or hesitation; as long as newspapers can find in such stories the materials of a great sensation; as long as there is a prevalent belief that no one is insane who is not furiously mad, so long will the confinement of the insane, in establishments expressly designed for the purpose, be viewed with feelings of distrust, whatever may be the legal provisions by which it is regulated." Respectfully submitted, BLOOMINGDALE ASYLUM, Dec. 31, 1872. D. T. BROWN. |