The second annual report of the committee of management of the Metropolitan Imbecile Asylum, Caterham, Surrey : 1871-72.

  • Metropolitan District Asylum at Caterham
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The second annual report of the committee of management of the Metropolitan Imbecile Asylum, Caterham, Surrey : 1871-72. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/50 page 12
    TEE ADMISSIONS. When it is stated that out of 448 admissions, more than half the number were of ages ranging from 50 to 90 years and upwards, that of these 61 were between 60 and 70 years of age; 33 from 70 to 80 ; and 9 from 80 to 90, nearly all much debilitated or paralyzed, the character of one class of cases is sufficiently indi¬ cated. If to this is added that the remainder for the most part laboured under such diseases as Paralysis, Epilepsy, Phthisis, Pulmonalis, Bodily Deformity, Exhaustion, and the utter helpless¬ ness of the extreme forms of Idiotcy, Imbecility, and Fatuity, with the habits engendered by those diseases, some idea may be formed of the general character of the Patients received into the Asylum, and the amount of labour thrown upon those who have the care of them. With regard to the very aged, and those who are far advanced in or much exhausted by bodily disease, especially such as the ordinary forms of Paralysis, involving probably no more serious mental lesion than is sufficient to produce “ Childishness, or Loss of Memory ” (the natural result of age), surely some provision might be made in Infirmaries attached to Workhouses, and thus the apparent harshness would be avoided of removing them to a great distance from such friends as they may have; and the infliction upon them, their children, and their relatives, of what is unfortunately still popularly considered the “ stain” of Lunacy. Another class of cases largely sent are those of Epileptics, many of whom, while resident here, have shewn but little mental disturbance, other than the temporary loss of consciousness at the period of the seizure, with, in some cases, slight general impairment of the mental faculties, consequent upon the attacks being frequently repeated. The mental diseases under which the Patients admitted during the past year laboured are recorded in the Case Books as follows—
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