Thirty-seventh annual report of the trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester. October, 1869.

  • State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thirty-seventh annual report of the trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester. October, 1869. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of recoveries has been more than 50 per cent, among the whole number discharged. The proportion of those discharged during the past year recovered and improved has been considerably larger, and the proportion of those discharged unimproved has been considerably less than during the previous year. These facts do not prove that the patients have been more skilfully treated, but they tend very strongly to prove that if a patient is seasonably brought under treatment at the hospital, his chance for improvement or recovery is better than in cases where the opportunity is neglected. In most cases of mental disturbance it seems to us perfectly clear that a well managed hospital where the treatment of insanity is made a specialty, gives to the patient a better opportunity for improvement and recovery than any other place, and that the mistaken kind¬ ness of friends in delaying to give to the patient the benefit of the hospital treatment too often operates to the disadvantage of the person whose mind is diseased. In this connection the Trustees deem it to be their duty to call the attention of the State government to the matter of a removal of the hospital buildings from their present location, and the construction of new buildings substantially in accordance with the views of the Superintendent in his report herewith presented. The action of the Superintendent has received the hearty approval of the Trustees, and they unanimously recommend the purchase of the beautiful tract of land of which the Superintendent, with the approval of the Trustees, has obtained the refusal, and the erec¬ tion of suitable buildings thereon. The location of the estate is about two miles distant from Main Street, is easily accessible, is in a quiet neighborhood, occupied by respectable agriculturists, with beautiful scenery in every direction, and with every advan¬ tage of pure and wholesome air which can be procured in the county of Worcester. Indeed, it is doubtful whether any part of the State could furnish a more desirable location for a lunatic hospital than the one which we have had the good fortune to secure. Those having the immediate management of the Worcester Lunatic Hospital have long felt that a more retired situation than that of the present hospital was very desirable, and that improvement in hospital buildings, and in the management of the insane since the time when the present hospital was located and built, made it their duty to recommend the erection of new hospital buildings in a more
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