Report of the Treasurer's Committee, to the Town-Council of Edinburgh, on remit to consider and report as to the best means of obtaining immediate accommodation for pauper lunatics : with an appendix of documents, containing the royal warrant, parliamentary grant, &c. &c.
- Date:
- 1837
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report of the Treasurer's Committee, to the Town-Council of Edinburgh, on remit to consider and report as to the best means of obtaining immediate accommodation for pauper lunatics : with an appendix of documents, containing the royal warrant, parliamentary grant, &c. &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![“ That in order to extend the benefit of the Institution to such persons as were in circumstances of indigence, it was proposed^ as soon as sufficient funds could he obtained for the purpose, that poor patients should be received into the Asylum, and should be attended by phy- sicians and surgeons appointed by the Trustees, without expense to them or their relatives.” This proposal to erect an edifice by public subscription for the cure of those who were able to maintain themselves, and to delay any provision for the poor till sufficient funds could be obtained for the ])urpose, does not appear to have met the views of the benevolent and enlightened public of that period, for no adequate funds could be obtained for carrying the plan into execution, the trifling sum of £ 223, 11s. only having been subscribed from that period till the year 1806, though various efforts were made to obtain contributions from the charitable and humane. Hence it became necessary, in all sub- sequent appeals to the public for aid, broadly and explicitly to state that the Institution was intended chiefly for the benefit of the poorer classes, and that the wealthy were to be admitted only as a means of increasing the amount of benefit to be conferred upon the poor. Accordingly, in the address written by the venerable and excellent Principal Baird, and extensively circulated throughout the Burghs and Presbyteries of Scotland, this leading feature of the Institu- tion was largely expatiated on. Previous to the circulation of this address respecting a new Luna- tic Asylum, public attention had been a good deal drawn to the sub- ject by various communications which had appeared in the news- papers of the preceding year. In the month of March 1806, a strong representation from the Managers of the Charity Workhouse to the Town Council of the city, was published in the newspapers of the day, in which those gentlemen, in the strongest terms, remonstrated with the municipal rulers of the town, as to the duty, the justice, and the absolute necessity of immediately procuring other and better accommodation for the lunatic poor, than the Bedlam of the city,—of the state of which they gave a most distressing and heart-rending account. In the autumn of the same year, (1806,) a total reform is stated to have been effected in the management of Bedlam, by an- other benevolent and intrepid member of the Medical Faculty, the late Mr Thomas Wood ; and the Couranl newspaper, in stating the fact, frankly admits, that both the house itself, and the inhabi- tants, were, till lately, in a state of filth and wretchedness the most deplorable and disgraceful.” It is known that in the year 1806, principally through the exer- tions of two patriotic Scotsmen, now no more,—the Hon. Henry Erskine, then Lord Advocate, and the late Right Hon. Sir John Sinclair,—a grant of L. 2000 was obtained by Act of Parliament from Government, to the Lord Provost, Magistrates, and Council of the city of Edinburgh, for the purpose of “ erecting an Asylum or Lu- natic Hospital in the said city.” (See Appendix.) Ground at Morn- ingside was fixed on as the healthiest and most eligible situation for the building to be erected on, and was purchased for the sum of L. 1450, which was considered a great bargain.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21971286_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
