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CHAPTER 17
LUNATICS
PART A -- GENERAL
1. Classification.-- Lunatics may be classed as follows:-
(a) Criminal lunatics.
(b) Lunatics for whose detention in an asylum a reception order has been passed.
(c) Lunatics so found by inquisition.
*
[2. Criminal Lunatics.- Criminal lunatics are lunatics for whose
confinement an order has been passed under section 466 or 471 of the Code of Criminal
Procedure, 1898, or under section 30 of the Prisoners Act, 1900.]
3. Reception orders.-- Reception orders are dealt with in Chapter II of Lunacy
Act, 1912 **[(IV of 1912)] which lays down the procedure to be observed
before a person, other than a criminal lunatic or a lunatic so found by inquisition, can
be detained in an asylum. Such reception orders are usually made by Magistrates.
4. Lunatics so found by inquisition.-- Lunatics so found by inquisition are
dealt with by the Civil Courts (See Part III, Lunancy Act, 1912).
5. Term "Mental Patient" and "Mental Hospital" explained.--
Although persons suffering from unsoundness of mind are described as lunatics in the Acts
mentioned above, it is now considered more humane to refer to them as "mental
patients". Similarly, institutions for the care and treatment of such persons, which
were formerly called Lunatic Asylums, are now called Mental Hospitals. The latter term
should ordinarily be used in correspondence.
6. Admission in the Punjab Mental Hospital.-- The only institution of this kind
in the Punjab is the Punjab Mental Hospital at Lahore, to which all mental patients, whose
confinement is considered necessary, are now sent. Accommodation is limited, and the
earliest possible notice should be given, whenever it is proposed to send a patient to the
Hospital. ***[...]
7. Further directions about admission.-- If possible, arrangements should be
made for the patient to reach the hospital before 5 p.m., and admission on *[Fridays]
and gazetted holidays should be avoided. Lahore Cantonment is the nearest railway station
for the hospital. Patients should invariably be brought to the hospital in a conveyance,
and the escort should be instructed to see that the patient is properly clothed.
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