The report of the Committee of Visitors of the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum, for the year 1857 : presented to the Court, at Wakefield sessions, 5th January, 1858.

  • West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The report of the Committee of Visitors of the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum, for the year 1857 : presented to the Court, at Wakefield sessions, 5th January, 1858. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    In 1856, indeed, they absolutely exceed in number those of Colny Hatch, with its 1200 patients. But, a far more influential circumstance in commenting upon this mor¬ tality, is to be sought for in the extremely depressed and feeble state of bodily health, in which the majority of the patients are found on admission. In truth, this last is the most constant circumstance in the year’s history. The depressing causes which have produced the insanity, have, at the same time, broken down the bodily health; those influences which are capable of giving rise to the one, being often as powerful in pro¬ ducing the other. Thus, of the 313 cases of admission, 210 are returned as feeble, 11 as reduced, and 92 only as healthy. And of the 119 deaths, 37 have taken place within three months after admission, 13 of these within one month, 1 in three days, another in four, 1 in a week after admission, and 2 more in a week and three days. Another not insignificant cause will be I found in the delay which too frequently occurs before the sufferers are sent to the Institution,—a delay, not attributable, as a rule in humble life, to the unwilling¬ ness of friends to part with them, but to the unwillingness of parish authorities to remove them, in the hope that i a short period may bring recovery. The histories of patients show that the duration of their insanity, on i admission, is counted usually by months, not seldom by ; years, rarely by weeks, and scarcely ever by days. Thus, ( of the 313 patients admitted during the past year, | no less than 175 exceeded one month in the duration i of their insanity on admission; while 64 had actually ( been insane for periods varying from one to many 1} years. And of the whole 828 patients in the house Feeble condition on admission.
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