Annual report for the year 1903 (6th year of issue) / Metropolitan Asylums Board.
- Metropolitan Asylums Board (London, England)
- Date:
- 1904
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Annual report for the year 1903 (6th year of issue) / Metropolitan Asylums Board. Source: Wellcome Collection.
14/420
![Kennett-Barrington, and Dr. M. I. Finucane was elected by the St. George’s Guardians in place of Mr. H. Hardcastle. The devotion of time and attention by a large number of the Managers to the work of the Board is very gratifying, the ever-increasing demands made upon them being cheerfully and satisfactorily responded to. From the return issued yearly it appears that nearly 10,000 individual attendances are made by the members of the Board annually at the Board, committee, and sub-committee meetings, showing an average for each member of about 135 attendances per annum. A few of the Managers, of course, do much more; and it must be regarded as a satisfactory feature of public life that the ratepayers can command such a large amount of voluntary service. In the last report reference was made to two important matters asylums6 ]n connection with the imbecile asylums—the opening of Tooting Bee Asylum, and the scheme of imbecile classification. Although the new asylum at Tooting Bee was, at the end of 1902, actually opened, in the sense of it having been furnished, and the principal officers appointed and in residence, it was not until January, 1903, that the first patient was admitted. The acquisition of this new asylum has been a great help to the Board in dealing with the pauper imbecile population of the Metropolis, and the taking of the additional number of patients whom the Board has been able to receive must have been a welcome relief to the workhouses and infirmaries administered by the guardians of the parishes and unions of the Metropolis. In February, when only the first hundred or two of patients had been admitted, the terrible fire at the Colney Hatch Asylum occurred, and it was a great gratification to the Managers to be able, owing to the fortunate circumstance of the recent opening of this asylum, to assist the London County Council in the dilemma created by the destruction of so large a part of their accommodation, by receiving from the county asylums about 200 of the more harmless chronic cases. It may be as well to state, for the information of any who may not be aware of the fact, that the addition of Tooting Bee Asylum to the Board’s imbecile accommodation is not merely an addition of so many extra beds for imbeciles, but is a most important help towards the general scheme for improved classification. All patients received by the Managers are nowT admitted in the first instance to the probationary wards at this asylum, and are thence, after due observation, •drafted either into the permanent infirmary wards, or transferred to whichever of the other asylums of the Board may be most suitable in each case.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30300307_0014.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
