VPRS 8246 Annual Examination Registers - Males

Annual and Quinquennial Examination RegistersSection 17 of the Lunacy Amendment Act 1888 required that each patient in every asylum, philanthropic hospital and cottage for the reception of patients and every boarded-out patient was to be examined annually by a medical practitioner appointed by the Governor-in-Council in order to determine their sanity or insanity and to inquire into their general health. This was to occur at least once in every twelve consecutive months of the detention or supervision of the patient. Under a provision of the 1888 Act, the medical practitioner was not to be an employee of any of the asylums. This provision was a direct result of the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Insane and Inebriate 1882-1884 (Zox Commission). Many witnesses before the Commission had alleged that patients were unnecessarily detained in the asylums.The legislation requiring an annual examination of patients was amended by the Lunacy Act 1903 section 88. From 1905 patients were to be examined once every twelve months for their first three years in residence and subsequently once every five years by the Superintendent of the asylum or in the case of a licensed house, by the Government Medical Officer. A report was then to be made to the Inspector-General of the Lunacy Department who in turn reported to the Chief Secretary (from 1950, reports were sent to the Chief Medical Officer of the Mental Hygiene Branch).Sunbury Annual Examination RegistersThe register records the date of annual examination, the date of reception into any previous institution, the admission date at Sunbury, patient name, disposal date and action and the date of the last examination of the patient.Patients still in Sunbury at the end of each volume were re-recorded in the next volume until they were no longer at Sunbury. At the expiration of the third volume there are references to several patients who were still in Sunbury but there is no continuing volume in custody. For the annual examination register of female patients, see VPRS 8247.