A PROPER LUNATIC FOR 2 YEARS - PAUPER LUNATIC CHILDREN IN VICTORIAN AND EDWARDIAN ENGLAND - CHILD ADMISSIONS TO THE DEVON-COUNTY-ASYLUM, 1845-1914

Little is known about the origins and experiences of children who were admitted to English lunatic asylums in the nineteenth century. The ce rtification and dispatch of young people to such institutions remained a rare event in comparison with the numbers of adults sent to the asy lum. It is difficult to explain the different treatment of insane chil dren and older lunatics solely on the grounds of legal provision and m edical discourse. Recent research has indicated both the importance of the Poor Law and the significance of family ties and wider community relations in the diagnosis and institutionalization of the insane duri ng the Victorian years. Evidence from Devon in this period reveals not only the impact of arrangements within the workhouse system on the de stiny of child lunatics, bur also the changing balance between central and local state institutions which provided the political context in which officials, professionals and family members negotiated the terms on which care could be provided for certified children. The pressures on local officials to make specialist provision for young people were increased by the growth of central regulation, the overcrowding of th e County Asylum, and the activities of voluntary bodies, which contrib uted to the movement for fresh legislation in 1913.