Research

Scope and Content Note

This series consists of true copies of medical certificates of lunacy for each person admited to a mental health facility. A standard form promulgated by the Commission in Lunacy, shortly after its creation, signed and attested to by a legally qualified examiner, the certificate provides: patient name, sex, nativity, color, occupation, cause of illness, relevant family history, the basis for the certification of insanity, the name of the institution, and the date of admission. This volume is the first of what was presumably an ongoing series that covered the commission's tenure through 1912. The existence and location of subsequent volumes is unknown.