WOMEN JUSTICES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1816, 31 July 1913, Page 2

WOMEN JUSTICES.

The appointment of Miss Emily C. Duncan as a certifying J.P. during her term of office as Chairman of the West Ham Board of Guardians (London), forms the • most decisive step forward in the feminist movement in the Old Country for many years. Tho appointment was inado a tew months ago by Lord Haldane, ill pursuance of the decision by the House of Lords, tluit tho Local Government (Qualification of Women Act) should f>crmit a woman to hold office as Mayor or chairman of boards of guardians, and by virtue of her offieo act as justice of tho penco, in so far as the certifying of lunatics is concerned. Miss Duncan's duties at West Ham Union, which is the largest in England, include the inspection of patients of doubtful sanity twice a week. Cases are brought to her, or she visits them in their wards, and after a few kindly questions, sho is usually able to accurately diagnose their condition. Difficult cases are under supervision for a fortnight or longer, nnd if at last they have to bo sent to an asylum, Miss Duncan signs the certificate. Her long study and interest in lunacy greatly assists her in theso. painful duties, and under her firm kindliness, hysterical cases and thoso simply suffering from acute alcoholic poisoning, rapidly become quiet.. Another notable woman is Sirs. Mary M. Bartelme, for many years an official guardian in Chicago, where her kindliness and success gained her tho name of tlie "Official Mother." .Recently, however, sho was appointed to tho Bench, and is sitting in tho Woman's Night Court in Chicago, the first woman Judge in tho history of the linited States. There are no men officials, and no male visitors in her court, 'in which many troubles-mio cases are dealt with; and much suffering investigated.