Report on insanity and idiocy in Massachusetts / by the Commission on Lunacy, under resolve of the Legislature of 1854.

  • Massachusetts. Commission on Lunacy.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on insanity and idiocy in Massachusetts / by the Commission on Lunacy, under resolve of the Legislature of 1854. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    joyed a longer life than those who died in the hospital. If these had been included in the calculation they would have shown a greater average longevity of the incurably insane than is shown by Dr. Chand- ler's calculation. Mr. John Le Cappelain, Actuary of the Albion Life Assurance Company of London, Eng., made a calculation of the expectation of life in the irrecoverable insane, founded on Dr. Thurnam's Statistics of Insanity, and has sent the result to the Commission, which is here given. Probable duration of life in irrecoverably Insane Persons. Age. Males. Females. 20 21.31 years. 28.66 years. 30 20.64 26.33 40 17.65 21.53 50 13.53 17.67 60 11.91 12.51 70 9.15 8.87 The difference of cost of time and expense of'restoring, and of life support of lunacy, is largely in favor of the former. B. [Note to the second edition, page 167.] The Tables and Statements presented in this Report show the dis- tribution of the insane and idiots as they were when the inmiiry was made in the autumn of 1854, and probably they are still the same, or represent similar facts now existing in Massachusetts, with the excep- tion of some of the State Paupers. Since the 1st of January several of the insane and idiots who were supported by the Commonwealth, have been transferred from the County Receptacles, &c., to the State Almshouses. A second inquiry was accordingly made of the superintendents of these several estab- lishments, in respect to the number and condition of those persons under their care. The following table shows the facts as they were at the end of May, 1855.