Second annual report, 1866 / Newcastle-upon-Tyne Borough Pauper Lunatic Asylum.

  • Newcastle-upon-Tyne Borough Pauper Lunatic Asylum
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Second annual report, 1866 / Newcastle-upon-Tyne Borough Pauper Lunatic Asylum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/46 page 17
    the circle went on a great part of the year, conspiring, quarrelling, and making it up again, without anything com¬ ing of it for a long time. And this is not to be wondered at, considering the mental state of the three men. Two of them were intensely suspicious, distrusting each other as well as every one surrounding them; and the other was so incoherent in his ideas, and so fitful in his moods, that it is difficult to conjecture by what tie he was bound to the rest. The disordered views of their surroundings, and the want of sympathy with each other, are the great obstacles to combinations among the insane, and hence the rarity of such in Asylums. There was perhaps only one subject on which the three minds could be as one, and on that they agreed. When this came about, the trio made a de¬ monstration, intimated that its members demanded immediate liberty, and as strikes were common in the outer world at the time, resolved to strike if its demands were not forthwith com¬ plied with. Instead of refusing to work, however, the three re¬ fused to eat, which was perhaps a more direct way of bringing things to an issue. The thought of actually fasting proved suffi¬ cient for the least zealous of the Fenians, who never deprived himself of a meal. The second and third days passed, and still the ardour and hopes of the other two sustained them. The sight of their companions eating a comfortable dinner must have been very trying, but still they resolutely abstained ; the fourth day’s dinner proved irresistible, and the Head Centre was left alone fasting till the fifth day, when he at last gave in, after in vain urging his companions to resume the strike. Since then, from time to time, long sederunts have been held. The clique, now reduced to two, with undiminished zeal plots and plans, but nothing practical lias come of all its deliberations. TREATMENT. The treatment of the insane under care has been and will be conducted on broad, and, it is hoped, sound principles. Keeping in view the bodily state, it is the endeavour of the physician to rectify what is out of order, and to strengthen what is weak by the applicatien of those remedies which are useful in various forms of bodily infirmity common amongst the insane. Whilst all is being done for the body, the mind will also be an object of constant attention and study, and efforts will be made to obtain the confidence of, and acquire an influence over, each individual case; to administer comfort, consolation, and support, or advice, remonstrance, or censure ; to know what is passing in the mind of each, to withdraw morbid trains of thought, to suggest healthy, to awaken new, interests, and to stimulate to varied occupation.
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