Report on lunatic asylums / by Fredc. Norton Manning.

  • Manning, Frederick Norton, 1839-1903.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

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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    century, and there is an outcry from mof?t of the older institutions for more land. In some cases, as at Stafford and Worcester, land for cultivation hj the patients is rented. In some of the liritish assylums, as Northampton, Lincoln, Leicester, Elgin, and Haddington, cultivation is done entirely by the spade, and the results are gardens in Avliich a hu-ge supi)ly of vegetables is grown' In some cases the product is so large as to^ supply the institution completely ; and at Leicester vegetables are sold to the amount of £3(X) annually. At other asylums, as at ]Montrose, and the Three Counties, horses are ke])t, cereal crops are grown, and all the ordinary agricultural operations are performed, sometimes by the aid of good machinery. At the Three Counties Asylum, onions (200 tons of which are sold) and other garden produce realize annually a sum of £1,000. The American State asylums have estates which are relatively larger than those of tlie British asyluuis. The couiparatively small price of land has perhaps been an iuduce- meut to buy more. Agricultural operations are cai-ried out with great completeness; but in several of the asylums patches of woodland have been left, which will eventually be cleared and cultivated, or cut into walks and ornamental grounds. At the Govern- ment institution at Washington, Avhich is in every respect a model institution, the asylum estate now consists oi' 230 acres, and the governors are in treaty for a further tract of 150 acres. The importance of a large estate is fully appreciated in France. In the Depart- ment of the Seine, in which three new asylums, calculated to contain 1,S00 patients, have recently been erected, the attached estates are 1,450 acres in extent; and at Ville Kvrard the large farm of 7'.0 acres is worked entirely by the patients. Twenty horses and twelve working bullocks are kept; and a large number of agricultural operations are performed with excellent implements, chiefly of English make. Fifty cows are kept, besides sheep, pigs, fowls, &c. Large quantities of butter and cheese are made. It is admitted on all hands, and the evidence to be obtained on the subject is convincing, that gardens and farms may be and are in most cases cultivated, not only with vast benefit to the patients, but A^dth considerable profit to the asylum. Were it worth A\ hile to enter into calculations on this subject, statistics coidd be given which would undoubtedly prove this position. But the Colony of Fitz James, a large lunatic »\stablishment conducted by private enterprise, is the best proof on this subject. From an examination into the amount of land possessed by the German institu- tions in the above table, it would' appear that in this country the value of land in connection with asylums is not fully appreciated ; but it must be remembered that in two (if the German institutions, Frankfort and Hamburg, the ])opulntion is almost exclusively derived from towns, and consists of people unused to a.gricultnral pursuits. At (Tottingen, earnest applicatioji has been made by the Superintendent for a larger extent of land. .\t Guislain's Asylum, Ghent, the population is chiefly a manufixcturiug one, and a large number of the inmates are employed in weaA-ing, so that land is not so necessary. Before proceeding to the question of asylum construction, two points are to be considered,—1st, the separation of the acute and chronic cases ; and, 2nd, the size of asylums. Sepaeatiox or the Acute axd Chronic Cases. In Germany, for many years past, the insane have been divided into acute and chronic— curable and incurable. In the mode of providing for the treatment of the two classes apart, two plaiis are pursued,—one termed that Of ' absolute separation', and the other of ' relative connection'—the former consists of placmg recent and chronic cases in buildings completely detached each one haAdng its own staft, organization and management; the latter, whilst keeping the chronic and recent cases apart, possesses a common medical and general administration, in a building composed of two principal sections, either forming part of the same structure (as at Illenau, in Baden), or detached but within the same area (as at Halle, in Saxon Prussia). * * Tlic State of Lunary : Dr. Arlidge, p. 141.
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