Forty-sixth annual report of the directors of the Dundee Royal Asylum for Lunatics : submitted, in terms of their charter, to a general meeting of the directors, 18th June, 1866 with the reports of the medical superintendent and treasurer of the institution.
- Dundee Royal Asylum for Lunatics
- Date:
- 1866
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Forty-sixth annual report of the directors of the Dundee Royal Asylum for Lunatics : submitted, in terms of their charter, to a general meeting of the directors, 18th June, 1866 with the reports of the medical superintendent and treasurer of the institution. Source: Wellcome Collection.
21/34 (page 21)
![detention for life or at Her Majesty's pleasure would have become necessary for the interest of his fellow men. Several patients had before admission attempted suicide. Three such were admitted within the periods of five days—two with large incisions in the throat, and one who had swallowed vitriol. Notwithstanding the difficulty which always exists in treating such cases, they are all now progressing favourably. Of the patients removed to the Lunatic Wards of Poor Houses, one had been resident in the Asylum since 1824, one since 1825, and one since 1883, but the majority were comparatively recent cases: seven having been admitted in 1858; three, in ]859; one, in 1860 ; three, in 1861 ; one, in 1862; four, in 1863 ; and eight, in 1865. The mode of procedure in transferring these patients to the Lunatic Wards of Poor Houses is worthy of remark. They were transferred by the sanction of the Board of Lunacy, and that sanction was granted on the certificate of the Medical Officer of the Parish to which the patients belonged. There can be no doubt that the requirements of the Statute would have been more fully satisfied, had the Board extended to the Parochial Medical Officers the restriction of incompetency which they imposed on the attendant Medical Officers of the Poor Houses. Notwithstanding the large number of admissions, the mortality during the past year has been unusually low. Only six deaths have occurred, of whom three were males, and three females. Three died from paralysis, two from general paralysis, and one from phthisis. The average age at death was 39| years, the extreme ages being 21 and 63 years. To describe the treatment pursued would be merely to enu¬ merate every effort made to relieve those under our care; for however clearly we may be able to classify the insane in accord¬ ance with the symptoms manifested, there is no doubt that in their treatment every case must be judged of separately. Two patients may be admitted suffering from intense mental depres¬ sion ; yet the one may result from exaggerated grief, the other from displacement of the abdominal viscera. In the former, medicinal aid may prove useless; in the latter, beneficial. Or the patient who believes the gibbet is erected for his execution](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30302110_0021.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
