§ DR. LUSHsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether, having regard to the opinion of the Commissioners in Lunacy, expressed in their Report respecting the condition of Broadmoor Asylum at their visit, 14th October 1868, viz.,
That this is not in our opinion an efficient way of dealing with mental disease, however complicated with criminal habits and even dangerous violence, we conceive it our duty once more to put on record; but, the same remonstrance in effect having been made unavailingly at every visit of the Commissioners since Broadmoor was opened, it is with no expectation of any kind of present result that we repeat it now,he will take care to assure himself, before filling up the vacancy in the office of Superintendent of Broadmoor Asylum, that the physician to be appointed holds opinions in accordance with modern views of the proper treatment of insane persons?
MR. BRUCE, in reply, said, that there had been a dispute of long standing between the Commissioners in Lunacy and the Directors of the Broadmoor Asylum as to the mode of treatment to be adopted towards the more violent lunatics. The hon. Gentleman had correctly quoted the Report of 1868; but it had reference to circumstances in 1867, which were exceptional. If the hon. Gentleman would wait for the Report of 1869, which had been delivered, and would be laid upon the Table shortly, he would find that it was much more satisfactory, and that the Commissioners were entirely satisfied with the present state of things. In saying this he was anxious that it should not be supposed that he made any reflection upon the character or position of the late Dr. 967 Meyer, whose recent loss was a very great one to the public service, and who was a man of great energy and ability, and possessing a thorough knowledge of his profession. The greatest care would necessarily be taken in the choice of his successor.