Report by the managers of the Royal Edinburgh Lunatic Asylum for the year 1842, presented to the annual general meeting, held on Monday, 30th January, 1843.

  • Royal Edinburgh Asylum.
Date:
[1843?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report by the managers of the Royal Edinburgh Lunatic Asylum for the year 1842, presented to the annual general meeting, held on Monday, 30th January, 1843. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    R E P O R T BY THE MANAGERS of the ROYAL EDINBURGH LUNATIC ASYLUM for the Year 1842, presented to the Annual General Meeting, held on Monday, 30th January, 1843. The Managers have much pleasure in being enabled to report that their extraordinary labours, which have been carried on during the last two years, are for the present happily concluded. The new poor department, which was opened in August last, con¬ tained, at the close of the year, 119 inmates; and the other department, which has undergone extensive improvements, so as to render it every way suitable for patients of the wealthier class, contained, at the same time, 43 inmates of that class. Thus the important design so long cherished, and the execution of which was so earnestly called for by the public wants, has at length been realized *— there being now spacious accommodation at Morning- side for about 350 patients of all ranks, with ample means for their due classification. In adjusting the plans of the new establishment, it was sug¬ gested, that if the system of congregating the poor at night in large ward-rooms, could be adopted with safety, it would both facilitate their superintendence, and conduce to economy in expense. Accor¬ dingly, it was resolved, after mature deliberation, that the new building should be so constructed as to have dormitories admitting of from 16 to 20 inmates in each, with one or more atten¬ dants among them; and the Managers have peculiar gratification in stating, that this experiment has been attended with complete success. Not only have no accidents occurred among the inmates so situated, but its beneficial effect on them has been