The eighteenth report of the Committee of Visitors of the County Lunatic Asylum at Hanwell : January quarter session, 1863 / [Middlesex County Lunatic Asylum].

  • Middlesex Lunatic Asylum at Hanwell.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The eighteenth report of the Committee of Visitors of the County Lunatic Asylum at Hanwell : January quarter session, 1863 / [Middlesex County Lunatic Asylum]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Tlie first and most important duty of the Committee is to take care that all proper means shall he provided for securing the health and comfort of the Patients, and be likely to con¬ tribute to their restoration to sanity, while their next duty is to do this with the utmost economy. It will be satisfactory to the Court to learn that while the Committee believe they have very fully secured the first of those objeets, they have on the other hand been able, during the past year, to reduce the rate of maintenance from 10s. 2\d. ner week to 9s. 11 d. This re- duction in the charge of maintenance took place 1st July, 1862, and will, to that extent, be a relief to the several Parishes who have Patients in the Asylum. In the month of July, 1861, the Court, on the application of the Committee, authorized the expenditure of J66,000, to be employed in the erection of a Boundary Wall on the south and west sides of the Asylum ; in the construction of a new Laundry, with Drying Booms, Engine and Boiler Houses; in the construction of a new Ward for refractory Patients on the Male Side, and a new Staircase at the east end of the Male Side of the Asylum. In the month of July, 1862, the Court, upon further applica¬ tion of the Committee, made another grant of PI,000, to enable the Committee to erect additional Gas Works, those already existing not being sufficiently large and powerful to supply the quantity required. The whole of these Works have been completed under the immediate personal directions of the Engineer, Mr. Martin, upon Plans prepared by himself and sanctioned by the Committee, in the most satisfactory manner; and the Court will be glad to