Superintendent's report for 1848 / Littlemore Asylum.

  • Littlemore Asylum
Date:
[1849?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Superintendent's report for 1848 / Littlemore Asylum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    4/28 (page 2)
    To the Committee of Visitors.— My Lords and Gentlemen, The most prominent events of the past year have been the completion of the Union of the Counties of Oxford and Berks, the City of Oxford, and the Boroughs of Abingdon and Reading-; and the removal to this Asylum of the Male and part of the Female Patients of Berkshire, from the Licensed Houses in which they were confined. The number of Persons so removed was not greater than was expected —and their removal was effected without accident or injury; and the Patients bore creditable testimony to the care with which they had been treated. Subsequent admissions however, of new cases, increased the number of Patients in the Asylum to an amount not anticipated prior to the completion of the new Buildings; so that the Wards have been, for the time, more crowded than was desirable; and this has led to increased noise and excitement amongst the Patients. The number of Workmen employed upon the premises has,— in addition to the rainy season,—obliged the Inmates to he more confined to their Wards than is usual; and these combined cir¬ cumstances have been a subject of anxiety, from the disturbance and inquietude produced on the minds of the Patients. In a few weeks however, the new Buildings will be completed, and the Workmen consequently withdrawn: when, on the removal of these impediments, and the return of the Spring season,—so favorable to the Patients taking out-door exercise,—beneficial results may be expected. Two of the Body of Commissioners in Lunacy have twice visited and inspected the Asylum during the past year; and on both occasions they observed upon the Beds being so closely placed in the Dormitories, and the proba-