Medical report of the Royal Lunatic Asylum of Aberdeen, for the year ending 31st December, 1865.

  • Royal Lunatic Asylum of Aberdeen (Aberdeen, Scotland)
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical report of the Royal Lunatic Asylum of Aberdeen, for the year ending 31st December, 1865. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    developed and utilised than in the crowded Halls of a large Hospital. A similar object^ that of averting or diminishing the tendency to clironicity, lethargy^ and dementia, engendered by massing the insane in large numbers and treating them in classes, might be, partially, accomplished by greater recourse to active exertion—by the introduc¬ tion of attractive and health-giving recreations, in which patients personally participate—by the ornamentation of the interior, and by the formation of workrooms, reading rooms, &c. * * Although the numbers of patients given as confined are not constantly con¬ fined to the Airing Courts, yet there is, at all times, a large body of the most degraded class pent u]p there, and for whom the provision of privies at present existing must be held to be altogether insufficient and inappropriate. Water should be introduced into all; and com¬ fort and cleanliness, as well as privacy, secured. Such and similar defects require to be remedied in order to place the diflerent parts of this Establishment in keeping and harmony; for it is obvious that the admirable arrangements at Elmhill afford abiding evidence of what can be accomplished, although upon a humbler scale; and that the skill, experience, and kindness displayed in the general treatment and management of the inmates will speedily embrace these matters specified, as scarcely inferior in importance to attention to the ordinary laws of health, if they be not comprehended in these. Elmhill now contains about 30 Boarders, and presents all the characteristics of a well appointed, well regulated Sanatorium. The Books, Orders, were examined. Seclusion has been used 29, the Shower-bath 10 times. An accident book is kept.