MAD-HOUSE STORIES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6467, 22 April 1899, Page 2

MAD-HOUSE STORIES.

- ■'■ ■'W-auclVsi-Scturiny Journal-)' The 'skeleton of the- household is never more carefully hidden than when it happens to be insanity. It is a fact, and no fiction, for instance, that people are often put in private asylums in names other than their own. Less than twelve months ago there was a case much to the purpose. A gentleman prominent in society suddenly lost his reason. For a time he was nursed at home, but he became so bad that he had to be removed to a licensed house, and then, he st'll remains. Before he was taken, to that establishment ha was reehnstened, the name bestowed on him being Smith, Jones, Brown, Robinson, or some other common cognomen. Meanwhile his disappearance had been explained away At first he was merely " ill," a nd then a paragraph went the rounds ,to the effect that he hud set off on an Eastern tour. By-the-bye, in all probability, we shall see an announcement that he died abroad or m consequence of an accident.-'- ■■'■• • -. - ; - -Once -get a man -in an asylum, and to mvent a figment to account for his absence TC! child's play. Some, yeans ago -a certain gentleman, -according to. the newspapers, lost his life in an alpine casualty The body was not recovered, and it never will be, for the simple, reason that it is not in Switzerland. What actually did happen was this:— A m-rmber of the party personated a gentleman who, having lost his reason, had been confined ni a proprietary house in one of the suburbs of London, but had died only a short time previously. He left the hotel with the others, ostensibly for. the purpose of climbing, but, as a matter of fact, he wens off to the nearest railway station and returned to England. His companions in the meantime had gone back to the hotel and related a most circumstantial story of how he had been carried away by being struck with a loose stone— a story which was in substance telegraphed, to this, country, bo matters were nicely adjusted, and the lunatics widow was able to look round tor another husband

A more common plan is to place a man under restraint without havino- him previously certified. This can be effected in two ways. Provided that official consent bu obtained— and that is given only on the implication of the intending patient himI self— he may become a "boarder " in either

a private asylum or a lunatic hospital. The real object of this provision is that temporary and doubtful cases may- be treated in such establishments without setting in motion all the complicated machinery of the law of lunacy. If a person is insane to such a degree that any specialist could, without hesitation, sign the certificate, it is a misdemeanour to Teceive such a person " except under the provisions of the Act" that is, unless with a proper reception order. None the less, it is a fact that numbers of voluntary patients now in confine-, ment, though technically insane, are really as mad as hatters, and are consequently being detained illegally. Sometimes lunatics themselves are extremely anxious that they shall not be certified insane, because thereby they would be deprived of their means of livelihood. As an instance, I take an actual case of a comparatively poor army officer, who was dependent solely on his pay. His mind became deranged to such an extent that hei was an eminently suitable subject for certification. But to have branded him as at lunatic would have paurperised him, since he would then have been discharged from, the service, and his one source of income; would have been cvi off. For this reason, ond this reason only, he was placed in a licensed house as a '" boarder " or voluntary patient.

Many similar cases are dealt witu in the same manner. And it is not only gentlemen who follow the profession of arms for whom the description of "boarder" is Substituted for that of " lunatic."