Fourth annual report of the Glamorgan County Lunatic Asylum, for the year 1867.

  • Glamorgan County Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fourth annual report of the Glamorgan County Lunatic Asylum, for the year 1867. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Ul’tlif 45 paticiits Ihsc/t{irif&d,{\S,—'22 iiiales^lG feiiialt'S— liail J*rrorrr('(J. ^I'lie ])ro])(^i’tiuii of Kecoveries to Admissions is nearly 55 per cent. 'Pile Discharges include a patient who escaped ; he laboured under Kecurrent Alania, and during the inter¬ missions mucli liberty was allow^ed him ; this privilege he abused by absconding Irom the grounds, and not having been brought back wdthin the statutory period he w'as dis¬ charged as tlie law' directs. d’here have been 55 Deaths during the t ear—28 males, 7 females. The proportion of Deaths to trie average number resident is about 10 per cent. This is a higher percentage than in any previous year, although still rather under the average mortality of County Asylums; the increase is partly the result of the exceptionally low' mortality of the last three years, viz : 5-4 per cent, on the average number resi¬ dent ; it w'as also partly caused by the liopeless physical c-ondition of a number of the cases admitted; these included four patients above 7 0 years of age, three of wAom died w'ithin the year. In one case of General Paralysis, death occurred from s\iffocation, wdiile the patient w'as at tea, the act of sw'allow- ing being so imperfect from the paralysis that the food passed into the windpipe. In another case of General Parah'sis, death was hastened by accidental injury to the chest, from the patient overturning the bedstead on himself in his excitement. In Ijoth these cases Inquests were held, and the Asylum exonerated from all blame in connection w'ith tliem. dTe Obituary includes a death which occurred after the patient had returned home, but while his name was still on the Asylum Books. He was found drowned in the shaft of a disused coal pit, w'hich he passed daily in going to and from his w'ork.' An inquest was held at the village where he lived, when a verdict of “Found drowned” wars returned, there being no evidence as to how he got into the pit. There is too much reason to fear that this man committed suicide. He had manifested suicidal tendencies before admission, and was at first very gloomy and dejected. This condition gradually passed oft', and he made a very satis-