Report on insanity and idiocy in Massachusetts / by the Commission on Lunacy under resolve of the Legislature of 1854.

  • Massachusetts. Commission on Lunacy.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on insanity and idiocy in Massachusetts / by the Commission on Lunacy under resolve of the Legislature of 1854. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    231/248 (page 5)
    1855.] hospitals, prisons, &c., an average of two dollars and eight cents a week. Besides this, the interest on the cost of the es- tablishments and the salaries, which were paid in another man- ner, amounted to about sixty cents a week for each patient— making two dollars and sixty-eight cents as the average cost. But, to be on the safe side, two dollars and a half is assumed in this calculation. The support of the independent patients in hospitals, includ- ing those at the McLean Asylum and those who were sent out of the State, will be not less than three dollars a week. At these rates, the cost of supporting insanity in this State for the last year amounted to three hundred and twenty-one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight dollars. 394 independent insane in hospitals, at $3 per week, $61,464 00 716 “ “ at home, at $2.50 “ “ 93,080 00 954 pauper insane in hospitals, at $2.50 u “ 124,020 00 568 “ “ elsewhere, at $1.50 « “ 43,304 00 $321,868 00 This enormous tax for the support of insanity was paid last year, and will be paid this year; and if no change takes place in the administration of those who are afflicted with this dis- ease, it will continue to be paid for years to come. This great amount is paid in divided sums, by the sev- eral families or guardians of the independent insane, by the towns and the Commonwealth, for their paupers, and therefore has attracted no especial notice, either of the Legislature or the people. The only noticeable item is the fifty-three thousand and eighty-five dollars paid in 1854 for the support of insane State paupers, besides the salaries of the higher officers of the two State hospitals, amounting in all to about sixty thousand dollars. The most painful feature in this matter is the two thousand and eighteen incurable cases, who now need to be supported forever. Including the eight hundred and forty who have never been in any hospital, and the large portion of the others who were not sent in season to the place of healing, it is probable that one-half of these incurables might have been restored if