Report of the medical officers of the Lunatic Asylum for the County of Lancaster : instituted 28th July 1816 1841.

  • Lancaster County Lunatic Asylum
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the medical officers of the Lunatic Asylum for the County of Lancaster : instituted 28th July 1816 1841. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    He shall report to the Medical Officers any case of declining health, illness, accident, or death. He shall keep a daily report of the number employed, and how employ¬ ed ; the number sick and under restraint. He shall also keep a hook in which shall be entered each accession of fits occurring in the epileptics, noting their duration and premonitory symptoms. lie shall use every endeavour to amend the condition of that part of the establishment in which his duty lies. And he shall consider it a duty of the first importance to exercise a constant control over all the other atten¬ dants, to excite exertion in them, and to direct their efforts in improving the condition of the patients. ATTENDANT’S DUTIES. He shall commence duty at six o’clock in the morning and continue till seven o’clock in the evening. Each attendant shall be allowed to go out every other night,—from seven to half-past nine o’clock if unmarried, all night if married ; and when in the institution he shall retire to bed at ten o’clock : he shall also be allowed to go out every third Sunday and half a day every three weeks. For every half hour each attendant is late he shall forfeit one afternoon. No attendant will be considered to perform his duty unless he uses every exertion to ameliorate and improve the condition of the patients under his charge : he shall not sit in his own room except at meal-times and in an evening ; at all other times he is required to be actively employed in attending on the patients, or cleaning the rooms and galleries. In the course of his duty he shall use no unnecessary violence.—For striking a patient or being found intoxicated he shall at once be discharged. He shall be under the control and obey all orders of the Chief Attendant. Each patient under his charge shall have the hair cut the first week of every month, shall have a bath once a fortnight, shall have the hair combed, his flannels changed and shoes cleaned and rubbed with dubbing once a week, shall be shaved and have the linen changed twice a-week. He shall likewise see that each patient is washed and has his hair brushed every morning, and if necessary his clothing also. Each patient on admission shall be put into a bath, or shall be well washed, and have the hair cut if necessary. Each attendant shall, with the assistance of the patients, keep clean the rooms and galleries under his charge.
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