Annual report of the Commissioners in Lunacy to the Lord Chancellor.
- Great Britain. Commissioners in Lunacy
- Date:
- 1851-1909
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Annual report of the Commissioners in Lunacy to the Lord Chancellor. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.
46/56 (page 40)
![Appendix (c.) it tends moreover to promote a good and kindly feeling tln'oughout the whole body of the pupils. Various industrial pursuits have been introdueed with success, and several of the inmates are occupied in basket-makino:, shoe-making, tadoring, gardening, joinery, sewing, knitting, netting, patchwork, worsted-work, and various portions of the housework, such as making beds, scouring rooms, peeling potatoes, washing up, and assisting the cook. It will be evident from the enumeration of the foregoing particulars that considerable advance has taken place among the pupils since their removal to Colchester, and we are inclined to attribute it to the judicious management adopted, and to the tact, discrimination, and persevering efforts of the matron placed in charge of the establish- ment. It is gratifying to observe the good effects already resulting from the steps taken to promote industrial pursuits; and although the im- portance of this subject has been dwelt on in a former Report on the parent institution at Ilighgate, we feel it incumbent on us again to draw attention to it, and to urge the necessity for increased efforts to attain this desirable object in its fullest extent. We therefore recommend that still more complete means for bring- ing into exercise the various muscles of the body, and of regulating their action, be adopted : That various objects calculated to stimulate attention and the imi- tative faculty be provided for the use of the most deficient pupils, and that persevering efforts be made to excite the powers of obser- vation, comparison, and imitation among those who appear the most unpromising; that the geometrical and drawing lessons be given on the easel-board instead of the slate ; that systematic instruction in general household work be regularly given to a larger number of girls; and that the wash-house and laundry be fitted up, and the children employed in washing and getting up body-linen [at present all the linen is sent out of the house to be washed and got up]: That persevering efforts be made to perfect the girls in plain sewing, and knitting, straw-plaiting, bonnet-making, &c.; that a more com- plete set of garden implements of a small size be provided; and that an increased quantity of land, to that now proposed to be cultivated by the pupils, be devoted to the purpose of exercising them in manual agricultural labour; and that some portions of it be allotted to the more advanced boys as distinct gardens, the cultivation and the dis- posal of the produce of which should be at the discretion of each pupil; and that a daily record be kept of the number of pupils employed, as well as of the nature of their occupation. We are of opinion, that in order to carry out a more complete system of occupation, it would be desirable to curtail the time at pre- sent devoted to scholastic instruction, and that as far as practicable every teacher and servant in the establishment should take some part in the industrial training of the pupils. We recommend, moreover, that efforts be systematically made to overcome the imperfect articulation manifest in some of the pupds. This mioht probably be accomplished by judicious exercises, calcu- lated to'call into action the vocal organs^ in the product:on, first, of the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21292231_0046.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
