The Feeble-Minded: Scheme for their care and control: Association formed for five South Western counties. … … … Colonel Clayton (Bath) proposed a resolution approving the formation of an Association the Western Counties for the permanent care and welfare of the feeble-minded. The Bishop of Exeter seconded, and the resolution was supported by Mrs. Hume Pinsent (member of the Royal Commission on the Care of the Feeble Minded). In an able address she pointed out the failure of the provisions under the Epileptic and Idiots Act which only took cognisance of the feeble minded children until they were 16 years of age, when they were left to their own resources. She quoted statistics showing what had happened in the case of over 250 children in Liverpool, who had been trained in special institutions until they were sixteen and then set free. There was only a very small percentage of those who had developed into wage-earners or partial wage-earners, whilst the very large majority relapsed into insanity or drifted into crime, and many of the females paid frequent return visits to the maternity wards. She gave illustrations by means of charts of the results of heredity in the case of feeble-minded or mentally defective persons, and pleaded strongly, on national and economic grounds, for preventive measures pending legislation in the direction of compulsory institutional treatment and detention permanently if necessary, so that these people should not be sent adrift into society the most critical and dangerous periods of their lives. … …
Transcribed in whole or part from scanned originals: Presented with or without modified text and punctuation. For absolute accuracy refer to the original newspapers. Source: The British Newspaper Archive.
Referenced
GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949