VPRS 7409 Quinquennial Examination of Patients Registers

Section 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).Quinquennial Examination of Patients Registers - Yarra Bend AsylumThese volumes record the dates of the examination of patients required once every 5 years under the provisions of the Lunacy Act 1903 (No.1873), section 88. Approximately one-fifth of the patients would be examined each year. Hence one group would be examined in 1905, 1910, 1915 etc, another in 1906, 1911, 1916, 1921, and a third in 1907, 1912, 1917, 1922 etc. Each group had a separate volume allocated to them. Examinations recorded in all five volumes between 1905 and 1912 are also recorded in VPRS 7408, volume 2. That volume acted as the "master copy" for the examinations recorded in VPRS 7409.It appears that patients were grouped together according to the last date of their three annual examinations.Some pages in volume one have been prepared for another function however these were not used.