Report of the Committee of Visitors, and twelfth annual report of the medical superintendent, of the asylum for the insane poor of the County of Wilts / Wiltshire County Lunatic Asylum.

  • Wiltshire County Asylum
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Committee of Visitors, and twelfth annual report of the medical superintendent, of the asylum for the insane poor of the County of Wilts / Wiltshire County Lunatic Asylum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/56 (page 18)
    itionai The crowded state of the female department Ward. ren(]ers it very desirable that the new wards now in course of erection, which were commenced in May last, should be completed as soon as possible. The delay which has already occurred is much to be regretted, as it is evident the summer of 1863 must be far advanced before the new building can be fit for occupation. In the meantime, it is a cause for thankfulness that there has been a diminution of bodily disease in the establishment rather than the reverse. It is a further source of satisfaction that the thorough ventilation and sanitary state of the building has been repeatedly noticed by the Visiting Magistrates, as well as by the Commissioners in Lunacy. Sewage. The subject of the proper disposal of the sewage has engaged the close attention of successive meetings of the Committee of Visitors and of the House Committee. The discharge of the sewage into the neighbouring brook had led to complaints, the occasion for which it was felt should, if possible, be removed. A plan which has been adopted elsewhere, for discharging the contents of the sewers on a part of the farm, to be laid down in grass, has been favorably entertained by the Visitors. It has been proposed to pump up the liquid by a water wheel, turned by a spring conveniently situated within the limits of the farm. The execution of this plan has been suspended, but only for the present, in consequence of some doubt being entertained as to the sufficiency of the water power. In the mean¬ time there is no resource but to carry out as sedulously as possible the filtration and deodorisation of the sewage in the tanks already erected for this purpose.