Report of the Committee of Visitors of the Lunatic Asylum for the City & County of Bristol, as presented to the Town Council on the first January, 1869, together with the reports of the medical superintendent & chaplain / Bristol Lunatic Asylum.

  • Bristol Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Committee of Visitors of the Lunatic Asylum for the City & County of Bristol, as presented to the Town Council on the first January, 1869, together with the reports of the medical superintendent & chaplain / Bristol Lunatic Asylum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ] 1 and even appear to be restored, and at the urgent request of their friends obtain dismission; but quickly after removal, are found unable to withstand the cares and exertions of ordinary life ; a relapse ensues, and a speedy return to the Asylum in consequence. It may be doubted if entire and permanent recovery ever takes place, when Mental disorder is complicated with Epilepsy. No Epidemic sickness has appeared in the Asylum during General Health, the year, and the causes of mortality have been of the ordinary types. In most instances the results of chronic disorganisation and decay of the nervous centres, or of constitutional proclivities to Tubercular or Strumous maladies existent before reception into the Asylum. Six deaths resulted from General Palsy, 10 from protracted Cerebral diseases associated with Epilepsy or Paralysis, five from Phthisis, three from chronic Gastric diseases, or Diarrhoea, three from Maniacal and Melancholic exhaustion and decay, and three from Marasmus and Senile decay. Deaths, and Causes, A Male patient, received in a very feeble and exhausted state, lived only four days after reception ; and a Female, who was reported not to have taken food for a fortnight, was brought in a perilous state of exhaustion from inanition. Abundant sustenance was administered without any unusual difficulty, the feeding tube having been used once only. This patient survived eleven days, but never rallied; the power to digest and assimilate food appeared to have been destroyed by her previous long-continued fasting. An inquest was held, in order to ascertain if there had been culpable delay in sending this case into the Asylum, and the Jury was satisfied that there had been no neglect. An inquest was likewise held on a Male Epileptic patient, whose death was caused by turning over on his face in bed during a fit. The Jury was unanimously of opinion that no blame was attributable to the attendants.