Forty-sixth annual report of the directors of the Glasgow Royal Asylum for Lunatics, submitted, in terms of their charter, to general meeting of contributors, 12th January, 1860.

  • Glasgow Royal Lunatic Asylum
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Forty-sixth annual report of the directors of the Glasgow Royal Asylum for Lunatics, submitted, in terms of their charter, to general meeting of contributors, 12th January, 1860. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    29/56 page 29
    recovery was completed, and of the chances of a relapse proportionally diminished by a longer period of proba¬ tion. The parties seem to think that the judgment and caution of Medical men, connected with the Asylum, are pushed to an undue extent. Yery many circumstances have to be considered before a decision can be pronounced as to the propriety of an uncured Patient’s dismissal. Should there be a fortunate combination of circum¬ stances, the removal of a Patient in a state near to convalescence—though not in a condition of which con¬ firmed recovery can be predicted—may be followed by a speedy attainment of complete mental health; and this, we are glad to be able to state, has occurred in several cases during the year. Unfortunately, however, such cases are in the minority,—few, indeed, in number, in comparison with those in which removal, prompted by impatience and entreaty, is followed by a relapse which places them in a far more unfavourable position than at first. Those, therefore, who are intrusted with the re¬ sponsibility of advising, must be careful how far they allow themselves to be swayed in their judgment, either by the importunity of the friends or the entreaty of the Patients. They must not forget that they have to con¬ sider, not only the actual condition of the Patient, not only his state at the moment, but also his contingent and probable position, when his wishes or the desire of his friends shall have been gratified, and when he shall be freed from the restraint and the safeguards of his tem¬ porary seclusion, and exposed to the disturbing causes, to which a return to the scenes of active life, and bustle of the world, may expose a mental and cerebral orga¬ nization, which lias already been injuriously impressed.
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image