Sixth annual report of the Committee of Visitors, Medical Superintendent, and Chaplain, with an account of receipts and expenditure, for the year ending 31st December, 1876 / Moulsford Lunatic Asylum.

  • Moulsford Lunatic Asylum
Date:
[1877?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sixth annual report of the Committee of Visitors, Medical Superintendent, and Chaplain, with an account of receipts and expenditure, for the year ending 31st December, 1876 / Moulsford Lunatic Asylum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    curable, and of these 32 were reckoned curable with a good prospect of recovery ; but in the case of the remain¬ ing 16, recovery, though possible, was in some degree doubtful. As to the correctness of this prognosis, it may be stated that of the former 21 had been already dis¬ charged as recovered at the end of the year, and more than one-half of the remaining 11 are well advanced towards convalescence. Regarding the ]6 cases whose restoration to mental integrity was considered to be doubtful, many of them have already improved to a considerable extent, and, it is hoped, will still continue to progress favourably towards recovery. In regard to the propensities exhibited by those ad¬ mitted, 62 were reported as dangerous to others, and 31 as having evinced suicidal tendencies, of whom at least four had attempted self-destruction. When the large number of patients admitted in whom suicidal impulse had been developed is taken into consideration, it is a subject of thankful congratulation that no case of suicide occurred in the asylum during the past year. Refusal of food, either as the result of delusion, perversion of the natural instinct, or with a suicidal intent, was recorded regarding 22 of the admissions, and of those 10 had to re¬ ceive sustenance by means of artificial alimentation, in the majority of instances only for a few days; but in the case of a male patient, now much improved, the operation had to be continued nearly a month. On admission, or soon after, 35 were found to be destructive, and 46 filthy in their habits, both propensities frequently existing in combination. The physical condition, as regards bodily health and the kind of disease present on admission, as well as the age of those admitted, having an important causative relation with the prospect of treatment terminating in
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