Annual report of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum for the insane : For the year ending 31st December 1871.

  • Royal Edinburgh Asylum
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum for the insane : For the year ending 31st December 1871. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    are handsomely furnished, and give the greatest satisfaction to the inmates. Owing to a new Gardener having been engaged, who required a house for his family, and the lodge at the east gate being damp and inconvenient as a residence, the Managers considered it their duty to take estimates for a new and more commodious cottage close to the old one. At the same time they took estimates for a new stable and cart-shed close to the piggery, the present stable, which is near the East House, being in disagreeable proximity to the apartments occupied by the better class of Patients, and being also most inconveniently situated for working the grounds. The contract price of these wrorks, taken together, amounted to £800, and both the cottage and the stable are now completed and occu¬ pied. This heavy outlay, added to the balance of the cost of the additions to the East House, and the painting and papering of the additions to the West House, will account for the extraordi¬ nary expenditure being so large. The expense of furnishing the new apartments of the East House, which is considerable, will appear in the account for the current year. The Managers, acting on the suggestion of the Commissioners in Lunacy, have also in view making extensive changes in the structural arrangements of the West House, so as to render the corridors less gloomy and prison-like. It is there¬ fore probable that the extraordinary expenditure will be conside¬ rable for some time to come. On the night of the 17th day of November last a fire broke out in the north-east corner of the square of offices at the back of the West House, the consequences of which would have been very disastrous had not the conflagration, soon after it was observed, been extinguished by the prompt application of the fire-hose purchased by the Managers a few years ago. The building was insured ; and the Managers have pleasure in recording their sense of the liberality of the North British and Mercantile and Scottish Union Insurance Companies in settling the claim of damages. In the early part of the year just closed, in consequence of the indisposition of Dr Skae, who has so long acted as the invaluable Physician-Superintendent of the Asylum, the Managers granted
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