Thirty-third annual report of the directors of James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics, near Perth. June, 1860.

  • James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thirty-third annual report of the directors of James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics, near Perth. June, 1860. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    52/104 (page 52)
    Principle of private spe¬ culation as applied to residences for the In¬ sane. Individual¬ ising system. Testimony of Dr Conolly. The “ rich ” versus the “poor” In¬ sane. the difficulties in legislation arise out of that particular class [p. 525]. If you had establishments of that kind, asylums or public hospitals—I should like to say chartered asylums—you would find that they would be precisely the reverse of those I have mentioned. First of all, there would be a total absence of that motive which constitutes the vicious principle of the present licensed houses ; there would be no desire or view to profit of any sort [p. 526].It is the result of very long experience in these matters, that a large proportion of the diffi¬ culties in legislation, and almost all the complications that we have to contend with, or to obviate, arise from the principle on which these licensed houses are founded. The licensed houses are founded upon the principle of profit to the proprietor ; and the consequence is, that any speculator who undertakes them, having a view to profit, is always eager to obtain patients, and unwilling to discharge them ; and he has the largest motive to stint them in every possible way during the time they are under his care [p. 524].The example which I principally should follow would be the example of Scotland. In Scotland the chartered asylums have existed for a certain number of years, and they have been 'productive of the very greatest benefit [p. 526].I would give in the bill a permissive clause to counties for the purpose of founding these asylums, entirely for the reception of the middle class patients [p. 526].I am quite sure that the whole system would be self-supporting, and infinitely to the advantage of the community; and I am certain by the establishment of such asylums as these, and by the appointment of medical men of a proper description, you will introduce that which some gentleman mentioned at the beginning of the day, an effective school of lunacy ; you will have a body of persons who really will be able to devote their time and attention, uninfluenced by any of those motives which have been referred to, to look into the root of the whole thing, and establish a school of lunacy [p. 527]. Unless, in the management of lunatics, you have what the Germans call the indi¬ vidualising system, viz., that the medical man should know every patient, and see every patient, and constantly direct his attention to him, you cannot effect any great or permanent cure [p. 537].” The veteran Dr. Conolly, late President of the “ Association of Medical Officers of Asylums and Hospitals for the Insane,”—whose name is justly celebrated in connection with his reforms in the Hanwell Asylum, near London,—in a paper on “ Residences for the Insane,” * read before the “ Association for the Promotion of Social Science,” remarks,—The situation of persons of the class above the poor when insane, “ If their resources are very limited, is indeed pitiable. The public asylums [of England], with a few happy exceptions—[Bethlehem Hospital, St Luke’s, the Hospital for the Insane near Northampton, and the Coton Hill Asylum, near Staf¬ ford],—and the private asylums where the terms are not more than can be afforded, do not offer the advantages enjoyed in the county asylums by the more fortunate pauper. Institutions adapted to the insane of the poorer of the middle and educated classes are yet unhappily wanted [p. 413].As there are very few public asylums, even for persons of moderate circumstances, yet above pauperism, and none at all for the rich, those who take a sincere interest in the proper treatment of the insane, still wishing to avoid private asylums, become captivated by sug¬ gestions for richer patients being treated in detached residences, where no other