Tenth annual report of the directors and physician of James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics. 1837.

  • James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Tenth annual report of the directors and physician of James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics. 1837. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    direction from the large cisterns situated in that quarter for the general supply of the building; and, as they were occupied there for a considerable period of time, and had not less than three or four candles burning, and no candlesticks, I have no doubt they either left one burning, or, while attached to some of the scantlings of the roof or other wood work, (the invariable method employed by them to fix a candle when performing a piece of work,) it had impercep¬ tibly reached the timber, and left the nucleus from which the whole calamity proceeded; and I am the more persuaded of the probability, if not absolute certainty, in the correctness of this conclusion, when I consider the place in which the men were employed, and the period of the following day when the fire burst forth with such overwhelming violence; but, to explain this, it may be necessary to state, that the large cistern and pipes where the plumbers were prin¬ cipally employed were near to the centre of the building, and the ventilator, where the fire broke forth, was at the extremity of the north wing, or nearly one hundred feerdistant; and, if you attend to the fact, that the current of air within the roof (from the hot air stoves not being in operation) was dull and sluggish, and that, from the closeness of the slate-