Thirty-fourth annual report by the directors of James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics, near Perth. June, 1861.

  • James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thirty-fourth annual report by the directors of James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics, near Perth. June, 1861. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    modation for tlie insane poor. This difficulty is one in which we fully sympathise, and which we fully understand : it is one of such importance, and is so fundamental and essential, that we pi’opose reverting to the subject in discussing means of obviating the difficulty in another section of this Report, under the head of “ Parochial Cottage Sanatoria” [pages 64 and seq.] 4. The know- Contrast be- ledge on the part of the Asylum physician that, however well a dTsdplfne and ... . . . at it -x i i i residence “ at patient may behave m an Asylum, and however suitable he may large.” appear to be for residing, with advantage to himself and without danger to the public, in a private house, yet the change from asylum discipline and asylum life may be attended or followed by results that could not have been predicted, and that can only be regarded as unfortunate and non-preventible. An Asylum Relative ........ , i *.i n r* -.responsibilities physician is by the law threatened with ail manner ot pains and 0f Asylum ... n „ . . « • • v i o Physicians and penalties for errors of omission or commission m the discharge ot his difficult and delicate professional duties; he is subject to public reprehension for results over which he too frequently has no control; he is generally ignorant of the circumstances in which a non-recovered patient may be placed on removal—of the character of his custodiers, for instance, or the suitability of his dwelling; and it is, therefore, but natural and proper that he should be chary in assuming the responsibility, entire or partial, of recom¬ mending non-recovered pauper patients to be removed from Asylums to be boarded in private houses. A certain amount of responsibility he must necessarily incur. A patient’s guardians have a right to look to him for a report on his condition while under treatment in the Asylum; but, in our opinion, it should be for the parochial medical officers, or for physicians appointed for Parochial the purpose by the parochial authorities, after consultation with the Asylum physician and acquiring a knowledge of the patient’s whole history as an Asylum inmate—after satisfying themselves as to his future custodiers and dwelling-place, occupation, diet, and so forth—to determine whether and how far a given case is a suitable one for removal to a given private house, and to certify accordingly. This responsibility, it appears to us, in the present state of the law, should be properly shared by the Inspector of Poor, the Parochial Board, and the Commissioners in Lunacy. Medical Officers. 5. The indisposition or absolute refusal of certain patients to leave Refusal of the Asylum to be boarded in private country homes. This may Asylum. appear the strangest and least comprehensible difficulty of all; and, though it does not frequently arise, it is nevertheless real,