Report of Commissioners Appointed under a resolve of the Legislature of Massachusetts, to Superintend the Erection of a Lunatic Hospital at Worcester, and to report a system of discipline and government for the same.

  • Massachusetts. Commissioners Appointed to Superintend the Erection of a Lunatic Hospital at Worcester.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of Commissioners Appointed under a resolve of the Legislature of Massachusetts, to Superintend the Erection of a Lunatic Hospital at Worcester, and to report a system of discipline and government for the same. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    15/46 (page 5)
    manner. The rear of the 1st, 2d, and 3d stories of (lie Centre Building is designed for the dining and day-rooms of the insane. The wings are, in each story, divided in the centre by a long hall or aisle, 12 feet in width, and extending from end to end. In consequence of the wings' falling half their width, as before mentioned, in the rear of the Centre Building, these halls communicate, at both ends, with the external air and thus the means of a most tho- rough ventilation are secured. Whoever has visited any public establishment, where the entire end of a wing is met and closed in by the side of the main building, cannot fail to have perceived the noisomeness of the atmosphere at that place, compared with it at the outer end, where free admission has been given to the pure air. On each side of these halls are situated the apart- ments designed for the insane. They are 8 feet by 10, and all are provided with a permanent seat secured in the wall. Each apartment has a large window with an up- per sash of cast iron, and a lower sash of wood, both of which are glazed. Immediately without the wooden sash is a false sash of cast iron, corresponding with the wooden one in appearance and dimensions. This is set firmly into the sides of the window-frame, a narrow space being left at the bottom for water to pass off and save the frame from decay. When the wooden sash is raised, the false iron one presents a barrier against es- cape or injury from leaping out through the window. It is said, that a man, however furiously mad, or impa- tient of confinement he may be, will rarely attempt to break through a window until he has first tried unsuc- cessfully to raise it. If it be so, this simple contrivance will afford effectual security both to property and per-