The report of the Committee of Visitors and Medical Superintendent of the Devon County Lunatic Asylum.

  • Devon County Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
[1856?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The report of the Committee of Visitors and Medical Superintendent of the Devon County Lunatic Asylum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/22 (page 10)
    I have recommended the erection of an inexpensive building, de¬ tached from, but within the grounds of the present Asylum, in preference to an extension of the Asylum itself. My reasons for this recommendation are, that such a building will afford an useful and important change for Patients for whom a change from the Wards is desirable. The system of placing Patients in detached buildings, resembling in their construction and arrangements an ordinary En¬ glish house, has been found to afford beneficial results in the so called Cottages which this Institution at present possesses. These Cottages are much preferred to the Wards by the Patients themselves, and permission to reside in them is much coveted. I am also convinced that such auxiliary buildings can be erected at much less expense than would be incurred by the enlargement and alteration of the Asylum itself. I propose that in the new building the Patients shall cook and wash for themselves. Any great addition to the accommodation originally provided in the Wards of an Asylum even¬ tually renders other alterations and additions needful. The means for washing and cooking are found to be inadequate; and the experi¬ ence of other County Asylums proves that the enlargement of the Wards has to be followed by new and more commodious offices. An Auxiliary Building can be constructed at a cost of about £50 for each Patient accommodated, or less than half the cost of the most econo¬ mically constructed Asylums. It would consist almost entirely of living and sleeping rooms. The residence of the officers, and the numerous outbuildings and offices, which absorb so large a portion of the cost of an Asylum, are not needed. The only objection to this plan is that the separation of the Auxiliary Building from the Asylum will somewhat lessen the facilities of supervision and increase the trouble of the Medical Officers. This disadvantage however appears to be of little importance when weighed against the many advantages which this plan of providing the accommodation absolutely necessary for the wants of the County appears to offer. A commencement has been made to obviate, in some degree, the accumulation of Chronic Cases, by placing a few selected Patients in