On the State of Lunacy and the Legal Provision for the Insane / With Observations on the Construction and Organization of Asylums

ON THE STATE OF LUNACY AND THE LEGAL PROVISION FOR THE INSANE, WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THE CONSTRUCTION AND ORGANIZATION OF ASYLUMS.
BY JOHN T. ARLIDGE, M.B., A.B. (Lond.), LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; ASSOCIATE OF KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON; PHYSICIAN TO THE WEST OF LONDON HOSPITAL; FORMERLY MEDICAL SUPERINTENDENT OF ST. LUKE’S HOSPITAL, AND PHYSICIAN TO THE SURREY DISPENSARY, ETC.
LONDON: JOHN CHURCHILL, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1859.
PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY, CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMISSION OF LUNACY, WHOSE LONG-CONTINUED AND UNTIRING EFFORTS IN BEHALF OF THE INSANE HAVE EARNED FOR HIM THE HIGHEST ESTEEM AND ADMIRATION OF ALL WHO FEEL INTERESTED IN THE WELFARE OF THAT CLASS OF THE AFFLICTED, THIS TREATISE IS, BY PERMISSION, RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY HIS LORDSHIP’S MOST OBEDIENT HUMBLE SERVANT, THE AUTHOR.

The writer of a book is usually expected to show cause for its production,—a custom which, however commendable as a sort of homage to his readers for challenging their attention to his lucubrations, must often put the ingenuity of an author to the test. Indeed the writer of this present treatise would feel some embarrassment in accounting for its production, did he not entertain the conviction that he has, in however imperfect a manner, supplied a work on several important subjects which have never before been so placed before the public, and which, moreover, occupy just now a most prominent position among the topics of the day.
In the last Parliament, up to the period of its dissolution, a Special Committee of the House of Commons was engaged in examining into the condition of lunatics and the laws of lunacy; and the present Government has re-appointed the Committee, in order to resume the inquiry preparatory to the introduction of new enactments into the Legislature. The subjects treated of in the following pages relate to the same matters which have engaged the attention of Parliament, and elicited the special inquiry mentioned, viz. the present state of Lunacy and of the legal provision for the Insane with reference to their future wants.