Report on lunatic asylums / by Fredc. Norton Manning.
- Manning, Frederick Norton, 1839-1903.
- Date:
- 1868
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report on lunatic asylums / by Fredc. Norton Manning. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.
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![lAJvATlC ASYLUMS. ])rivate enterprise k in advance of public charity, in its adoption of modern improve- ments, a7id in the minor economies of household management; but, taken as a whole, the accommodation to be found in proprietary houses, and the arrangements for the comfort and treatment of the patients, are less satisfactory than in county asylums. And it cannot but be admitted, that the principle which permits a pri\^ate individual, to enter into a commercial speculation in the care and treatment of the insane, is at the bottom wrong ; and that this sale of the insane to any one who will undertake to provide for them at the smallest cost, may, except under the strictest supervision, lead to abuses which, though not impossible in public establishments not managed for profit, are far less hkely to occur in them than in private houses. It is somewhat remarkable that proprietary asylums for pauper patients are unknown in j^merica. Tt will now be necessary to describe the general construction and organization of asylums for the insane of the INDiaENT OR PAUPER CLASS. Site. Under the liead of site are to be considered :— Ist. The site itself, as regards elevation and soil ; 2nd. The aspect; 3rd. Distance from toAvn. Elevation.—Almost the entire number of recently built hospitals for the insane are placed in elevated positions, and command extensive views, some of which are among the most beautiful in the countries to which the asylums belong. Tt is difficult to find buildings possessing greater advantages, as regards view, than the Coton Hill Asylum, near Stafford, which has a fine view of agricultural scenery in the one direction, and of the towTi of Stafford in the other; the Worcester County Asylum, which has a rich agricultural district near, and the Malvern Hills in the distance ; and the Sussex, at Hay ward's Heath, from which the South Downs are visible. Tlie new Surrey Asylimi stands on an open moor, and looks over a fine stretch of country ; and these are a few only of English asylums which are placed in situations rich in natural beauty. The American asylums, as a rule, command views of singular beauty and extent; and some of the more recently built of the Continental asylums are finely placed. The f^ummit of a hill has been generally chosen, and the slope in front is made to serve for airing grounds. In some instances,—as at the Criminal Asylum, Broadmoor, and at Cupar, in Fifeshire,^—the slope is so rapid that a full \\&vf of the surrounding country is visible over the high walls at the lower extremity of the ground; and in other asylums, by placing the wall in a slightly sunken position, the view is easily obtained, and the airing grounds thus lose almost all their prison-like appearance.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21292450_0030.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
