Report of the York Lunatic Asylum, for the seven months ending Dec. 31, 1870.

  • York Lunatic Asylum
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the York Lunatic Asylum, for the seven months ending Dec. 31, 1870. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/34 page 10
    recoveries and deaths for the year ending May 31st, 1870, amounted to 48.7 and 6.2 respectively. Of the 32 patients admitted during the year, and the 19 ad¬ mitted during the seven months, only one-third were received under conditions the most favourable to recovery, that is, within three months after the commencement of the first attack of Insanity. Even with this great drawback, the recoveries have been seen to amount to nearly 50 per cent., and it may, there¬ fore, be assumed that the per centage would have been materially higher, and have probably amounted to 60 or 70 per cent, at least, if the patients generally had been placed under treatment at an earlier period of the attack. It cannot be too earnestly or frequently enforced upon public attention that, speaking broadly, the probability of recovery bears an inverse ratio to the period which is permitted to elapse between the commencement of the attack and the adoption of proper measures of treatment. Beyond the fact thus referred to, and the circumstance that 63 per cent, of the cases admitted had associated with them a decided suicidal tendency, the admissions have presented no feature which calls for special mention in this report. The deaths have resulted from ordinary causes in every instance, and I am spared the painful duty of recording a sui¬ cidal, sudden, or accidental death. No inquest has been held since the date of my last report. A similar immunity has, I am thankful to say, been main¬ tained as respects accidents of a serious nature, escapes, and at¬ tacks of epidemic disease, although the latter has, at various times since the Summer, prevailed extensively throughout the adjoining city. The general management of the institution has been con¬ ducted upon the principles which have regulated it during pre¬ vious periods. No restraint has been used or required, and se¬ clusion has formed an unimportant, and very occasional, item in the treatment which has been adopted. Constant out-door exer¬ cise, associated, as far as possible, with productive industry, has been alternated with, and has relieved from monotony, both the ordinary daily life of the patients, and their weekly meetings for recreation and amusement. For assistance in maintaining the latter we are indebted, quite as largely as heretofore, to the ready and kindly co-operation of friends in the city and neighbour¬ hood. No one who has not had actual asylum experience can pos¬ sibly comprehend, to its full extent, the importance, in their influence for good upon the patients, of these regular meetings for recreational purposes. Not only are they anticipated with eager interest, and thoroughly enjoyed when they arrive, but they also afford subjects of agreeable conversation and discussion for long afterwards. So essential have they become to the
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3