Thirty-fourth report of the Derbyshire County Pauper Lunatic Asylum : for the year 1885.

  • Derbyshire County Pauper Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
[1886?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thirty-fourth report of the Derbyshire County Pauper Lunatic Asylum : for the year 1885. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    dissentients) on the motion of Colonel Mosley who “ urged that this would obviate for the present the necessity for the erection ot a detached Infectious Diseases Hospital.” As Superintendent-Physician of the Institution, and its Medical Officer of Health, I may be permitted to express my regret that a matter so repeatedly and urgently pressed by the Lunacy Com¬ missioners, and considered so essential by your Medical Officer, should be further delayed and not carried into effect. I am thankful for the disinfecting apparatus, but it is only one weapon, and that not the strongest, in the necessary armour with which to fight the battle of infectious disease. I view so seriously the risk incurred in neglecting to make this necessary provision that I feel I should be lacking in my duty if I failed to record my opinion that, should un¬ fortunately infectious disease attack us, the resources of the Asylum are utterly inadequate to enable us to meet the enemy, for we are not properly equipped or fully prepared, as there is no proper separate accommodation for the isolation and treatment of such disease. There is certainly a small empty cottage in the front field which is damp, does not contain a single really good room, and is quite unsuitable for the purpose. This will at once be seen from the following statement giving the cubic space of the rooms :—The cottage contains two rooms, one has ] ,070 cubic feet, the other 900 cubic feet; the kitchen has 1,430 cubic feet, the passage between the kitchen and scullery has 900 cubic feet, these four places being 10 feet high, the scullery has 665 cubic feet and is 7 feet high. When it is considered that the highest Medical and Sanitary Authorities recommend from 1,500 to 2,000 cubic feet of air space per bed for fever cases and infectious diseases, which is the space usually given, it will be at once apparent how utterly unsuitable the cottage would be for the purpose of an Infectious Hospital. Disinfecting Appabatus.—With the grant of £800, a disinfecting room has now been provided, fitted up with “ Washington Lyon’s Patent Steam Disinfector,” made by Manlove, Alliott, Fryer, and Co., Nottingham, at a cost of £191. In this disinfector, articles of clothing, bedding, &c., are subjected