Tenth annual report of the medical superintendent of the lunatic asylum, for the counties of Salop and Montgomery, and for the boroughs of Much Wenlock, Shrewsbury, and Oswestry. 1854 / [Salop and Montgomeryshire Counties Lunatic Asylum].

  • Salop and Montgomeryshire Counties Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1855
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Tenth annual report of the medical superintendent of the lunatic asylum, for the counties of Salop and Montgomery, and for the boroughs of Much Wenlock, Shrewsbury, and Oswestry. 1854 / [Salop and Montgomeryshire Counties Lunatic Asylum]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    In the Years. Men, Women. Total. 1849 80 74 152 1850 95 91 186 1851 103 108 212 1852 104 121 226 1853 115 135 250 1854 131 162 293 Notwithstanding that the necessity just alluded to has been fully considered and appreciated, and so as to afford good grounds for hope that the proposed extension of the Institution will be sufficient to provide for any future exigencies as to room; it may not be inexpedient to state the following facts in explanation of the course that has been pursued in this matter, and of the urgent reasons I which have led to its adoption. According to the census of 1851, the population of England and Wales was 17,927,609; the population of Shropshire at that time being 229,341 ; and the population of Montgomeryshire 67,335. According to the fifth Annual Report of the Poor Law Board, [[appendix, Table 33,] the number of insane persons chargeable to [•Parishes and Unions in England and Wales, on the 1st of January, 11852, -was 21,158.—This gives a proportion to the population of 1 in 847. In Shropshire, the number of Pauper Lunatics and Idiots returned at the same time wras 330, or a proportion of 1 in 695. In Montgomeryshire, the number of chargeable Insane was > then returned as 122, or a proportion of 1 in 552. This last mentioned proportion was higher than that of any I other County in the Kingdom ; and from the standard proportion in the modes of maintenance, there appears, moreover, to have been at that time a remarkable deviation, so far as regards the Insane Poor in Montgomeryshire. Of these, at the period referred to, * 30 only were in the Asylum, 15 were placed in Union Workhouses, and no fewrer than 77 wTere “ farmed out.” * On the 27th of December, 1854, there were 47 Patients in the Asylum, chargeable to Parishes in Montgomeryshire; but the number of those who were placed in other situations at that time has not been : ascertained.