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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![i;reat success, witli increased comfort to the patients and rclicl to the asylum At Montrose Asvknn, a few quiet patients are acconnnodated with the workmen and artisans employed ou the estate, and living in cottages near the asylum. Carried to this extent, and as supplementing an ordinary asylum, the cottage system has worked admira- bly, but wh(3U more fully employed, the system has not, on the whole, been tound to answer. The inconveniences Avhieh have been felt in this arrangement have been chiefly from difficulties of supervision, owing to the large space over which the asylum extends. The best form of cottages, whether for a complete asylum or as an adjunct to au existing institution, are the con joined cottages designed by Mr. Stack and Dr. Campbell, at the Essex Asylum (see Appendix G, Nos. 10 and 11), whicli, though an addition to the existing institution, are in themselves a very beautiful and complete small asylum to contain seventy-five patients. There are three (;ottages joined together' by a covered way; each is intended to hold twenty.fiye patients, and consists of'two stories. On the ground floor are a day room, four single dormitories, a nurse's room, a scullery, water-closet, and bath ; on the upper story is an associated dormitory for twenty-one patients, with nurse's room oyerlookingit, store-room, and closet. Provision is made for the erection of another cottage Avhen necessary ; the kitchen, dining- hnl], and store-room, common to the three, being'of larger size than at present needed. This <_-onjoined cottjige plan, stands midway between the cottage plan pure and simple, and the'block or pavilion plan, and is well worthy of imitation, whether for a complete asylum of small si/.e, or as an addition to existing structures. In this sketch have been mentioned the jieculiarities of all the marked systems of asylum construction at present in use, so far as has been ascertained; but there remains to'be noticed an English asylum in whicli the house, block, and cottage systems, are comliined into a \ery satisfactory whole. Tlie New Surrey Asylum at Brookwood (see Appendix 6', Nos. 12, 13, and 11-) was designed by Mr. C. H. Howell, after much study of English and Continental asylums. The main structure is chiefly on the house plan, and designed to contain rooms for administration, and divisions for the cases recently admitted, and the sick, which shall be near to and therefore more immediately under the superin- tendence of the resident physician. The convalescent and working patients are accommo- dated in four detached blocks,—the latter in connection with the workshops on the male, and the laundiy on the female side ; and the more quiet patients are accommodated in the houses of the gardener and farm bailifl', placed at some little distance from the asylum, each of which will contain about twenty patients, and be under the immediate su])eryision of those officials. In this plan some of the best points of each system are introduced, and the whole seems very complete and satisfactory. The number of stories in asylums yaries considerably. Some of the older insti- tutions, as the old Stafford, have four stories. The modern Erench asylums, on the pavilion plan, have two only, but the majority of English and American institutions— and among these those working most satisfactorily and mcII—have three stories oyer part if not all the building. The more violent and refractory cases are usually accommodated in buildings of one story only, in British, Erench, German, and Americaii asylums ; and frequently, Avheii the asylum is on the corridor or house plan, the buildings for the noisy are completely detached and isolated from the main building. The material for asylum construction varies considerably, as might lie expected. Out of nineteen English asylums visited, fifteen were of brick, some totally unornamented, some faced with white stone, and two or three of the more recent, as tlie New Surrey at Brookwood, and the New Staflord at Burntwood, of variously coloured brick. The former of these is roofed with blue tiles; but the large majority of English asylums ha\ e slate roofs. The Erench asylums are more usually of stone, as St. Anne's, Yille EvTard, Evreux, and Chareiiton; some few, as Quatrc Mares, are of brick. The American' asylums are also more usually of stone, as are also the (lerman, but the material which is most readily procurable, seems to have been usually selected. The architectural style which prevails in asyluius may be described as the Old En^^- lish or Domestic Style. Occasionally in Great Britain vve find a highly ornate structui-e such as the Derby Asylum, which rejoices in tower and pinnacle, and is really a yery c](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21292450_0041.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
