§ MR. BRUENasked the Lord Advocate, To state what portions of the grant from Imperial funds towards the maintenance of pauper lunatics in Scotland was, in the years 1875 and 1876, applied towards the maintenance of the lunatics who were in the insane wards of poorhouses; and what was the sum per head per week contributed in this way towards the cost of maintenance of such lunatics?
THE LORD ADVOCATE,in reply, said, the total amount of the grant in 1875 towards the maintenance of pauper lunatics in Scotland was £59,483, and of that amount the proportion contributed towards the maintenance of pauper lunatics in the licensed wards of the poor-houses was £5,283. In 1876 the corresponding figures were £62,637 and £5,803. The amount contributed by Government was half the cost of maintenance, except in cases where the cost exceeded 8s. a-week, the limit of the Government grant being 4s. In 1875 the average daily contribufrom Government in aid of the maintenance of pauper lunatics in poorhouses was 3s. 6¾d., and in 1876 it was 3s. 9d. In Scotland those licensed wards in poor-houses were under the direct control of the Board of Lunacy, and not of the authorities who had charge of the poor, and they were inspected by the medical officers of the Lunacy Board. No case was admitted into them unless the medical officers certified that it was a proper case for detention there. In fact, they were used for the purpose of relieving the asylums where violent and 13 incurable cases of insanity were treated, the poor-house wards being reserved for chronic and harmless lunatics.