DEMENTS AND AMENTS. In an address on “The Control of the Feeble-Minded” at Colchester Town Hall on Tuesday — the Bishop of Colchester presiding — Mrs. Pinsent said the mentally defective were divided into two large groups. The first group consisted of those suffering from acquired insanity, and these were scientifically termed dements. The second group consisted of people born with some part or the whole of their mental power lacking, and these were generally called idiots or the feeble-minded, the correct term being aments. There were, in this country, 130,000 dements and 149,000 aments. That afternoon she (Mrs. Pinsent) had the pleasure of going over the Eastern Counties’ Asylum, and had found it very beautifully arranged, and carrying out a most important work. Mrs. Pinsent continued that probably 75 per cent of the arson committed in this country was the work of the mentally defective. To remedy this evil, it was suggested that all Courts of Justice should have power to order the detention of a person of this class in a suitable institution, instead of pronouncing sentence imprisonment. As regards the relationship of mental defect and drunkenness, over 60 per cent of the inmates of inebriate reformatories were mentally defective. Referring to “our method of breeding paupers” Mrs. Pinsent mentioned that in one Workhouse there had been found 18 mentally defective women, who had produced 93 illegitimate children. In some Workhouses imbeciles and lunatics were not properly segregated from the inmates. Dr. Hunt proposed a resolution declaring the need for legislation on the lines recommended in the report of the Royal Commission on the care and control of the feebleminded; and that the Royal Eastern Counties’ Institution is worthy of an honourable position in any great national scheme. … Mrs. Heath seconded the motion, which was carried.
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Referenced
GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949