Treatment of Feeble-Minded: Need for Special Legislation for Amentia: work in Birmingham: “The treatment of the feeble-minded” was the subject chosen by Mrs. Hume Pinsent for the fourth lecture of a series under the auspices of the Citizen’s League for Poor Law Reform, given at the Birmingham University, Edmund Street last night. The Lord Mayor (Alderman W. H. Bowater), who presided, said the idea of these lectures, of driving home the public the importance of the problems of the poor and inflicted, appealed to him very much … … (continues with a long discussion by Mrs. Pinsent which ends with) … … Defectives in Workhouses: Mrs. Pinsent next passed to the consideration of the subject in its relation to crime, drunkenness and pauperism, supporting her plea for reform with extracts from the report of the Commissioners and medical authorities. The percentage of feeble-minded inmates of workhouses, she said, ranged from 11 per cent to 26 per cent. — these figures not including the defectives passing through the casual wards. Those who were found to be unemployable were largely recruited from the physically and mentally defective. A large percentage of feeble-minded men and women actually drifted into the workhouse before they were thirty years of age. While they could still secure parental help, they managed to exist by obtaining casual unskilled employment put (?) directly after the home was broken up, degradation set in. The lecturer paid a tribute to the work done by the local Joint Board of Guardians at Monyhull, declaring that it was doing and would continue to do some of the best work in England for defectives. But because the Guardians of Birmingham were so enlightened it did not follow that it was best for the country that the Guardians should be the local authority for the care of all defectives. From the evidence given before the Commission it was shown that there were only six or seven boards of Guardians in the whole of England who had been able to give the defectives adequate provision. The lecture was illustrated by a number- of interesting charts illustrating the history of local degenerate families investigated by the lecturer.
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