Eighth annual report of the Committee of Visitors and Medical Superintendent, with an account of receipts and expenditure, for the year ending 31st December, 1878 / Moulsford Lunatic Asylum.
- Moulsford Lunatic Asylum
- Date:
- [1879?]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Eighth annual report of the Committee of Visitors and Medical Superintendent, with an account of receipts and expenditure, for the year ending 31st December, 1878 / Moulsford Lunatic Asylum. Source: Wellcome Collection.
17/70 page 17
![of deaths occurred during the decade between 40 and 50, while the number of those who succumbed at an advanced age was less than usual as but four died whose age ex¬ ceeded 70 and only one between 80 and 90. It may be added that none of the deaths that occurred during the year became the subject of a coroner s inquest and that in 18 instances the cause of death was elucidated by post- . mortem examination. The genera] health of the patients throughout the year, notwithstanding a notable increase over the number of inmates the asylum was built to accommodate, was upon the whole satisfactory and there was but one casualty of importance to record, which was fracture of the neck of the thigh-bone of a female paralytic patient, who was accidentally pushed over by another patient. One of the male attendants also sustained a fracture of the small bone of the leg in making a sudden movement to prevent a male epileptic from falling during a fit while in the airing court. Towards the end of the first quarter diarrhoea was rather frequent on the female side for a short period, but during the rest of the year the hygienic condition of the female side was remarkably good. Erysipelas again appeared in the male division during the last fortnight of the year and for some time pre¬ viously there had been at intervals several cases of intractable diarrhoea in this department. This unfavour¬ able sanitary condition was easily accounted for on the score of over-crowding, as there had been for six months an excess of from ten to fifteen patients over the regula¬ tion number on the male side and was still further aggravated by an encroachment on the male space which took away the male Infirmary day room and large dormitory. This alteration which was effected with a view to facilitate the progress of the infirmary portion B](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30310179_0017.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
