Twenty-third annual report of the directors of the Dundee Royal Asylum for Lunatics : submitted, in terms of their charter, to a general meeting of the directors, 19th June, 1843.

  • Dundee Royal Asylum for Lunatics
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Twenty-third annual report of the directors of the Dundee Royal Asylum for Lunatics : submitted, in terms of their charter, to a general meeting of the directors, 19th June, 1843. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    In again laying our Annual Report before the Meeting, we have to congratulate you on the increasing usefulness of the In¬ stitution, and prosperity of the Establishment. If we take the number of admisions as a test of the value of the Institution in the eyes of the public, or the number of cures performed as a criterion of its value—the year just ended has been eminently prosperous. The admissions amounted to sixty-one, being three more than the highest number admitted in any one year since the opening of the House ; while the cases discharged, cured, or relieved, amounted to forty-four, fully maintaining the average of former years. By a reference to the tables, it will be observed that there has been a very great increase in the number of females ad¬ mitted—no less than thirteen more than last year. Amongst the new tables, there is one containing the per¬ centage of-deaths for a series of years. We are indebted to I Mr Farr, a Government officer, who has greatly distinguished Jhimself by his writings on statistics, and also to Mr Roy, the teacher of mathematics in the Dundee Seminaries, for the pre¬ paration of this table. By this table, it appears that the annual average mortality alias been only 5.86 per cent, for the last thirteen years. ]j From another table, the gross number admitted to this date a is stated to be 984, while the cures amount to 439, or 44.61 (per cent. H We have, as usual, to regret that a very large proportion of sthe cases sent us were almost hopeless, from the length of time (that the disease had already existed. Not less than twenty- jjseven, being nearly one-half of the total number admitted, were cases, some of them of not less than twenty years standing. . Suicidal Patients.—Among the admissions there were no ess than ten male and seventeen female cases of suicidal mania,