Report on the Royal Lunatic Asylum, Infirmary and Dispensary, of Montrose. 1863.

  • Royal Lunatic Asylum, Infirmary, and Dispensary of Montrose
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the Royal Lunatic Asylum, Infirmary and Dispensary, of Montrose. 1863. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to this tentative process being placed permanently as single patients, under the charge of relatives or guardians. I have experienced con¬ siderable difficulty in finding suitable persons who are willing to receive the poorer class as boarders. The houses of working men are generally ill adapted for accommodating such inmates, and this will undoubtedly prove the greatest obstacle in carrying out on a large scale, the wise provision in the new Amendment Act for libera¬ tion on trial, in the case of pauper lunatics. Nineteen patients were removed uncured, some of them injudici¬ ously by their friends; a few were transferred to other Asylums, and some to the lunatic wards of poor’s-houses. Of the latter class, I would refer to two, who it appears to me were removed in direct contravention of the Act, which limits these wards to the reception of such cases only as “ are not dangerous, and do not require curativq treatment.” Both of these alluded to were, in my opinion, suscept¬ ible of curative treatment, while one was a violent, and in the ordin¬ ary sense, certainly a dangerous patient. It is evident, however, that when the Parochial Authorities who have a direct pecuniary interest at stake, are left to decide to which class the patients belong, the line of demarcation will not be over nicely drawn. The mortality has been lower during the past, than in several years previous, owing, no doubt, to the smaller number of admissions. It may be accepted as a general rule applicable to hospitals for the insane, that the greater the proportion of admissions is to the average number resident, so is the death rate increased. Acute forms of insanity often terminate fatally; but chronic mental alienation does not of itself necessary shorten life. The deaths were 10 per cent, on the average population, and 8 per cent, on the total number treated. Five of those who died were between 70 and 80 years of age, one of them an old and well-known inmate who had been 29 years in the Asylum. Upwards of 36 per cent, of the deaths resulted from diseases of the nervous system, and nearly the same proportion from diseases of the lungs. One patient died from choking with food, and a detailed account of his case will be found in the Appendix. The general health of the inmates has been good. The fact, that since the opening of the New Asylum, now nearly four years ago, it has escaped almost entirely the epidemics which prevailed' in the neighbourhood, even to the wide-spread influenzas and diarrhoeas, speaks well for its sanitary arrangements. That the standard of
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