Feeble Minded Peril: Powerful Plea for Actin: Mrs. Hume Pinsent, a widely known and able lecturer on the question of the care of the feeble-minded, addressed a well-attended meeting at the room of the Halifax Literary and Philosophical Society, last night. … The mayor, in introducing Mrs. Pinsent said he had had the pleasure of hearing her at the Municipal Association’s Conference in London this year. She put before them the question of feeble-mindedness in a very able and interesting manner. She had the distinction of being the first lady introduced to that large and important conference, and had the honour of carrying a resolution, absolutely unanimously, in favour of dealing adequately with the question of feeble-mindedness. … The report on lunacy, published the other day, stated that LUNATICS WERE INCREASING at the rate of 2,500 every year. The seriousness of the question of feeble-mindedness required to be brought to the notice of everybody. An enormous amount of money was being spent on lunacy in this country, a larger amount than for any charitable object. While that money was spent for putting up and maintaining lunatic asylums all over the country, we were doing nothing to get at the most of them and stop the supply — (hear, hear). A voluntary organisation had been formed with the object of confining these people in colonies. They were doing their best to start one in Yorkshire. Subscriptions had been promised, and they hoped that the meeting that night would result in further interest being shown in the subject. Nothing was ever entirely taken up by the Government until voluntary effort had placed the thing on a good footing. The Englishman had to rely on voluntary help before the Government stepped in and did his duty. Mrs. Hume Pinsent, who one of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the care of the feeble-minded, proved to be a most forcible speaker. The mentally defective person, she said, was one who through mental defect was incapable of managing himself or his affairs with ordinary prudence. That was not a strictly scientific definition, but it was a practical one … Those fell into two large and distinctive groups: (1) Those who suffered from acquired insanity, popularly, foolishly, and rather unkindly called lunatics. the “dement” or insane class; and (2) those suffering from congenital mental defects, born mentally defective, with some part or whole of their mental power, impossible to be developed, commonly called idiots or imbeciles, and clarified as ” aments.” If the existing numbers were small and remained stationary, they need not be concerned about them, but they were in large numbers, and they were steadily increasing, and that of that of the first named there were 138,000, and of the latter 280,000 in England and Wales. Dealing with the first the dements there was the Lunacy Act, which placed them under control; it was not perfect, and might be usefully amended, but on the whole, it was very good and well administered. But it was for the second class the “aments”, that they NEEDED FURTHER LEGISLATION. Those in this class had hitherto not been held to be certifiable and the present Lunacy certificate was so worded that it was almost impossible for doctors to certify what was palpably evident to everyone. The utter neglect of that class increased crime, drunkenness, and pauperism. The recommendation of the Royal Commission was that the lunacy certificate should be worded to include that section as well as the first group who were more or teas provided for. The Education Act dealt with them during school age, but it was so much money wasted when they were allowed to be uncontrolled afterwards. Instead of being dealt with in an industrial colony, she adduced diagrams and figures from personal experience to prove her contentions. To be educated they cost three times as much as the normal child and then present lack the lack of a system. they were unable to provide for themselves. The MOST DISASTROUS FACT was that incapable as they were in other respects, they were capable of producing children greatly exceeding the numbers born to healthy artisans. It was quite easy to show how enormously increasing were the number of the lowest and worst classes and how there was a gradual lessening of the figures among the artisan and middle classes, and therefore a gradual lowering of the average intellectual capacity of the nation. That was so, and it was one of the most serious facts they had to face. Instancing this from two cases she knew, she said she wished all who TALKED SENTIMENTAL RUBBISH about liberty of the subject could see the results she had seen. Liberty! It meant that irresponsible creatures would be subject to and fall to the lowest and most repulsive forms of vice. It was absolutely clearly and scientifically established that the congenital feeble-minded mated with such never produced anything but feeble-minded. if one was mated with a normal person only feeble-minded children were born. It was often said that if feeble-minded children were taken quite young and placed amongst healthy surroundings, they would not become mentally defective. The contrary was the fact. Mentally defective persons were treated without hope and purpose and in such a way that they were allowed to become criminals of the very worst type and allowed to propagate progeny of the very worst. At present, however, a large percentage of the mentally defective became INMATES OF WORKHOUSES at from 30 to 36 years of age. It was a pity that complete dependence did not take place until after the first decade of the productive period. Probably a quarter of the existing pauperism was practically due to the mentally detective not being properly dealt with. The Poor-law as it stood evaded the problem. Dealing with what she described as the present hopeless future of their treatment of the feeble-minded, Mrs. Pinsent said they had four public authorities all trying in vain to deal with the question, and none of them attempted to coordinate, and none had sufficient powers. First, there was the Board of Education, which dealt with about a quarter of the mentally defective but only during school age. Second, the Local Government Board had charge of the mentally defective who were destitute who went in and out the casual and maternity wards without any restrictions as to the number of children they produced. Thirdly, was the Home Office, which only dealt with them when they fell into crime. Fourthly was the Lunacy Commission, which was the only body which effectively dealt with them. But its powers were limited and were not sufficiently wide without further legislation. They recommended that AN ACT SHOULD BE PASSED to extend all benefits to all grades and classes. They wanted one simple central authority with a consistent policy instead of four with insufficient and most contradictory powers. On the whole, the Government’s Bill was good, and they gave it a hearty welcome. It is far better than nothing, and they trusted it would lead to a more complete Bill in the near future. She appealed for all to endeavour to get the Bill through during the coming session, and when passed they must see it is well administered. They must EDUCATE PUBLIC OPINION to see that the Bill was framed in a spirit of prevention rather than a futile attempt at cure. … (continues) …
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