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The Mary Dendy Hospital was a hospital for the "mentally subnormal" located in Great Warford, Cheshire, England. It was founded in 1902 as the Sandlebridge Colony when the Lancashire and Cheshire Society for the Permanent Care of the Feeble-Minded opened two houses in Sandlebridge in Cheshire.〔For this and other basic dates, see National Archives entry for Mary Dendy Hospital at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=017-nh11&cid=0#0.〕 Mary Dendy M.A. 1859-1933 (after whom the establishment was renamed following her death in 1933) was the secretary (and later president) of the society, involved in agitation for the reform of provision for the "mentally sub-normal", and gave evidence to the Royal Commission looking into the issue, which produced the Radnor Report, leading to the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913.〔for both Royal Commission and 1913 Act see Mathew Thompson, The Problem of Mental Deficiency: Eugenics, Democracy and Social Policy in Britain, c. 1870-1959 (Clarendon Press; Oxford, 1998).〕 She repeated in her evidence to the commission 〔Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded, 1908, vol 1 Cmd 4215〕 a view she had frequently expressed previously,〔e.g. "The Feeble Minded", Mary Dendy, Economic Review (July 1903)〕 that the mentally subnormal and the mentally ill should be recognised as separate problems, requiring different approaches, and hence the mentally subnormal required separate facilities and institutions distinct from the traditional lunatic asylum: the Sandlebridge Colony was the first permanent residential care home for mentally deficient children in the United Kingdom and thus an exemplar for this approach.〔,The Borderland of Imbecility: Medicine, Society and the Fabrication of the Feeble Mind in Late Victorian and Edwardian England, Mark Jackson,Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0-7190-5456-3〕 With charitable and state support, the Colony expanded, acquiring new accommodation for residents and staff, a laundry, schoolroom and hospital, farm buildings, land and livestock and a recreation hall. At its peak, the hospital owned a large proportion of the property in Great Warford. In 1941, financial problems forced the Society to relinquish control to Cheshire County Council. Post-war other approaches were considered more appropriate, and Mary Dendy Hospital (as it had become known) was run down, finally closing in 1989. All that survives today is a unit operating on Chelford Road which now takes care of mentally ill patients who would previously have been sent to Rampton Secure Hospital. One of the largest of its old sites has been demolished to make way for a modern housing estate at Buttermere Drive ==Thinking behind the Colony== The purpose was as stated in the name of the founding society 'permanent care of the feeble minded', but 'Permanent care' and 'the feeble-minded' had implications and significance to the society which may not be apparent to the modern reader. In the terminology of the period 'mental deficiency' was used to describe all degrees of mental and social ineptitude, with the term 'feebleminded' (as opposed to 'idiocy' and 'imbecility') referring to the mildest degree of mental deficiency. As a book co-authored by Mary Dendy noted in 1920 〔http://www.archive.org/details/feeblemindedness00lapauoft, "Feeblemindedness in children of school age by C. Paget Lapage with an appendix on treatment and training, by Mary Dendy"; Publications of the University of Manchester, Medical Series No. XIII. University Press, Manchester, 1920〕 The definitions of the three grades adopted by the Act〔ie the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913〕 are : The eugenics movement was strong in Edwardian England. Many of its supporters held that feeble mindedness was of particular concern because it weakened moral restraint more than physical capability and was therefore connected with criminality, poverty and promiscuity.〔Pedagogy and sex: Mary Dendy (1855-1933), feeble-minded girls and the Sandlebridge Schools, 1902-33, Joyce Goodman, History of Education, March 2005, Vol 34, No 2, 171-187〕〔and vice versa - Mary Dendy told the Royal Commission (op cit) "If a woman comes into the workhouse with an illegitimate child it should be considered evidence of weakness of mind"〕 Furthermore, it was thought to be to some degree hereditary; if left unchecked, the alleged lack of sexual restraint of the feeble-minded meant that the incidence of feeble-mindedness would increase in each succeeding generation.〔 It is not only that these people are themselves failures; they are, almost all, at large and are at liberty to take upon themselves the duties and responsibilities of parenthood and it is certain that they hand on their incapacity Hence, the eugenicists argued, ‘for the good of the race〔or social progress; eugenics had supporters over much of the political spectrum〕’ the mentally subnormal should be prevented from breeding. Permanent separation of the mentally subnormal was one (relatively benign〔compared to compulsory sterilisation (see feeble-minded for the adoption of this approach elsewhere) or euthanasia〕)way of seeking to achieve this, and would carry with it a requirement to permanently care for them, so that separation was also in the best interests of those removed from society. This was the basis upon which the Sandlebridge Colony was established, and the Royal Commission subsequently found this view to be well-supported, reporting:
and adding that: the general feeling of the people would at present rightly condemn any legislation directed chiefly or exclusively to the prevention of hereditary transmission of mental defects by surgical or other artificial measures. The possibility of adopting such measures having been referred to by twenty-one of the witnesses but only recommended by three.〔 The Mental Disability Act of 1913 led to the general adoption of this approach in England and Wales and was passed despite objections from some MPs 〔(Hansard record of Committee Stage debate ), HC Deb 28 July 1913 vol 56 cc61-255.〕 that it could lead to vulnerable people being deprived of their liberty for inadequate reasons and without adequate safeguards. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mary Dendy Hospital」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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