Second annual report of the Inverness District Lunatic Asylum : May 1866.

  • Inverness District Lunatic Asylum
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Second annual report of the Inverness District Lunatic Asylum : May 1866. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OP THE MEDICAL SUPERINTENDENT. -OOo<> At the commencement of the present year, 18th May 1865, 192 patients were resident in the Asylum, of whom 94 were males and 89 females. Since that date there have been 57 individuals admitted, of whom 30 were males and 27 females. Of these 45 were from parishes, and nearly all were placed under treatment for the first time; 7 were transferred from other Asylums; and 3 were private patients. Unfortunately, of those admitted one-half were chronic cases, and out of the whole number 22 were regarded as cur¬ able, and 10 as possibly so. Of the 22 curable cases, 9 suffered for the first time from mental disease, 12 had experienced a former attack, and one had been twice resident in an Asylum. Of the 10 possibly curable, 2 laboured under a second attack, and 8 were affected for the first time. In addition to these unfavourable cir¬ cumstances, there existed in both classes two elements difficult to overcome—a strong hereditary predisposition, and a period of life when the reparative processes are but imperfectly performed. Amongst the peculiarities in the admissions during the year may be mentioned that of an Hungarian Jew, who was brought to the Asylum in a state of extreme depression, following an attack of mania. He made a rapid and satisfactory recovery; stated that he had previously been the inmate of a similar institution in Vienna, *