Tenth annual report, &c., of the Belfast District Asylum for lunatic poor, being from 1st April, 1839, to 31st March, 1840.

  • Belfast District Lunatic Asylum
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Tenth annual report, &c., of the Belfast District Asylum for lunatic poor, being from 1st April, 1839, to 31st March, 1840. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The following are the causes assigned for insanity, in 109 new admissions of the year:— 92 cases, out of I. MORAL CAUSES. Males. Females. Total. Domestic misfortunes, 2 3 5 Grief, ... ... ... ••• , 3 5 8 Apprehensions relating to a future state, 1 3 4 Jealousy, 1 3 4 Loss of property, 3 0 3 Tride, 0 1 I Poverty and reverses, 4 5 9 Remorse, ... ... ... ... 1 0 1 Fright, 2 9 11 Fear of want, 1 0 ] Religious excitement and enthusiasm. 3 2 5 Total, II. PHYSICAL CAUSES. Abuse of Mercury and other medicines, Bodily debility, Puerperal affections, Intemperance, Effects of fever, Epilepsy, ... ... ... •• Functional disease of the uterus, Injury on the head, ... Hereditary, 21 31 52 3 0 3 3 3 6 0 4 4 6 2 8 3 3 6 1 2 3 0 1 1 4 0 4 3 2 5 Total, 23 17 40 The old cases treated during the year, amounting to 210 eluded the relapses), are thus to be accounted tor :— Discharged, recovered, Do., (by desire of friends), relieved, ... Do., dead, Remaining in the house, (in which are ... 29 2 20 159 ill-. Total, 210 The criminal lunatics (who are comprised in the new admissions) received, during the year, amounted to 7, viz , 3 males and 4 females. Four were trans¬ mitted from County Down Gaol, two from County Antrim Gaol, and one from the Belfast House of Correction. One of the males, from the effects of intem¬ perate habits, attempted to murder his wife, by firing a loaded gun at her (which seriously wounded her in the groin), but was acquitted of the charge, on the ground of insanity. Another, a male also, was charged with horse-stealing, and, after a formal trial, was likewise acquitted, on the ground of insanity_ The remaining cases, of this class, had been guilty of trivial assaults, of one description or other ; and, being certified to have been insane at the commission thereof, were, accordingly, transmitted from Gaol to the Asylum, by the Lord Lieutenant, either agreeably to the provisions 1 and 2 Geo. IV., chap. 33, or 1 Victoria, c. 27. The subject of placing such inmates as the foregoing in these Institutions, is one which, in former Annual Reports, has been particularly dwelt upon.— The inconveniences arising from this practice, it must again be reiterated, are manifold; and the effect produced on the general character of the Asylums, by thus converting them into prison-houses for life for felons, is most pernicious. Now, what is the fact connected with one of the male criminals admitted this year—the one charged with the felony of horse-stealing? Simply this, which was elicited from himself, shortly after his transmission to the Asylum—that he pretended insanity whilst in Gaol, for some time before his trial came on (which he did, principally, by refusing to speak, except now and again