Volume 1

The care and cure of the insane : being the reports of The Lancet Commission on Lunatic Asylums, 1875-6-7 for Middlesex, the City of London and Surrey with a digest of the principal records extant and a statistical review of the work of each asylum from the date of its opening to the end of 1875 / by J. Mortimer Granville.

  • Joseph Mortimer Granville
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The care and cure of the insane : being the reports of The Lancet Commission on Lunatic Asylums, 1875-6-7 for Middlesex, the City of London and Surrey with a digest of the principal records extant and a statistical review of the work of each asylum from the date of its opening to the end of 1875 / by J. Mortimer Granville. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    340/382 (page 324)
    mortality at the hospitals of Bethlcm and St. Luke's among the class called curables at ii per cent., and only 6 per cent, among incura- bles (chronic cases). Dr. Thurnam's work contains the following among other references to this hospital. He gives the mean annual mortality per cent, resident of curables and incurables for 83 years, 1751-1834, as males, i39; females, 7'o6—showing an excess of 96 per cent, on the side of the men. The proportion of recoveries per cent, of admissions in cases of less than twelve months' duration when admitted'''':— Bethlem, 1827-39 52-38 per cent. St. Luke's, 1751-1834 3971 These cases recovered within one year of admission. The average duration of residence at St. Luke's for 83 years, 1751-1834, Dr. Thurnam estimates thus :— Curable patients, o'68 ; curable and incurable together, i '02. Treating of the proportion of cures effected generally in 1859, Dr. Arhdge (who was formerly medical superintendent of St. Luke's, and is specially thanked for his scientific work by the medical committee in the centenary report of 1851) says, The most satisfactory results we can point to are those obtained at St. Luke's Hospital, London, where the cures have averaged 62 per cent, upon the admissions during the last ten years. Dr. Webster, in a paper read before the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, June 27th, 1843 (previously cited), observes :— According to an authentic statement now in my possession, the total number of lunatic patients received into St. Luke's Hosi^ital for the twenty years ending the 31st December, 1802, appears to have been 3987, whilst the admissions increased to 5346 during the twenty years ending the 31st December, 1822 ; although from that date to the 31st December, 1842, they again fell to 4044. . . . No doubt can exist regarding the gi-eater frequency of mental alienation among females than males ; indeed, the excess of insane women admitted at Bethlem Hospital is shown to have been 47 per cent. ; and as the same facilities regarding the admissioii of patients into that institution prevail, without any reference to sex, provided the cases are recent, the above results must be considered conclusive. A similar opinion is likewise fully borne out by the number of insane patients of each sex admitted into St. Luke's Hospital, during the same period of twenty years, to which reference has just been made [see tabulated summary for Bethlem, page 304]. By returns obtained through the kindness of a friend, it appears that 1734 lunatic male patients were received into the wards of that charity, from the 31st December, 1822, to the 31st December, 1842; whilst the number of insane females admitted during the same period amounted to 2310, or 33^^ per cent, more of the latter than the former sex.