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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    LUNATIC ASYLUMS. on liygieilic grounds^ on which something will be said further on ; but in others it is more or less a matter of necessity, since the amount of land belonging to the institution is either too small to allow the entire amount of sewage to be used on it, or so situated as to make it extremely inconvenient to do so. At Colney Hatch the entire sewage from 2,500 people is collected in a multiple tank; and, after being mixed with carbolic acid and lime in small quantities, the solid part is all employed on the land belonging to the asylum, and a part of the fluid is also so utilized by a system of closed pipes : tlu^ remainder is allowed to escape into a small stream beneath the asylum. IiTigation with tanks is the means most commonly employed, and may be seen at AV <n'cester, Derby, Sussex, Broadmoor, the Goverament Asylum, Washington, and other institutions. It seems, on the whole, most simple, most effective, and most generally applicable. The tanks are generally placed at a distance of about a quarter of a mile from the house, and are constructed to hold only two or three days' supply. Fi'om them, cither by ovei*flow, or by means of pumping two or three times daily, the sewage, fluid and solid, is distributed over the land by gravitation, in trenches, or by open wooden troughs. The tanks are placed, if possible, sufiicieutly above the land to be iri'igated to allow of ready fall ; or, Avhere this is impossible, the sewage is raised by hand or horse pump to troui;hs at a higher level, from which it can gradually be led on to the land, as at Montrose, Derby, and the Three Counties. In this system—unless in very close proximity to a town or the asylum itself—there seems to be no need of mixing disinfectants with the seAvage ; all experience proving that sewage matters are not obnoxious when used in their recent state, and before poisonous gases are disengaged by storing for a long time in tanks. The seAvage is generally applied to a few aci-es ol' rye grass with such abundant results, that four or flA'-e crops are obtained in the course of a year ; but there seems to be no good reason why arable land should not be treated in the same manner with an equally good result. At Leicester this is done ; and the exact line at Avhich irrigation commences is marked by the cabbages being at that spot almost tAvdce as large as those on the gi'ound immediately above it. The amount of solid matter deposited in the tanks is small, and they seldom need cleaning. Irrigation without tanks can be employed Avhere the fall is good, and the laud for irrigation of such an extent and so situated that the entii'e scAvage may be applied to a part only, AAhilst the remainder is subjected to ordinary agincultural operations. Grazing land is peculiarly fitted for this ; and, perhaps, the best example of the system to be found in British asvlums is at the Old Stafford Asylum. At this institution the seA\'age from the asylum itself and from the neighbouring ])rison—the tAVO containing a population of about 1,400 people—is applied to a series of small meadoAVs lying immediately beneath the asylum, and in close contiguity to the town of Stafford. Adhere the main scAver terminates is a small shed in Avhich lime and carbolic acid are mixed with the seAvage in the following simple way. Tavo casks are placed side by side ; in the first, Avhich stands some six inches aboA^e the other, is placed lime, and in the second carbolic acid. A small stream of Avater runs from a tap into the cask containing lime ; the overfloAv from this runs into the carbolic acid cask : and this again overflowing drops immediately into the scAvage floAving beneath. A little lime and carbolic acid are added to each cask daily ; and two or three times a day the contents of each are Avell stirred. The total costs of disinfectants for the scAverage from 1,400 people is Is. .3d. a day ; and it appears to be quite suflUcient, since no smell is perceptible in the asylum, or on the fields themselves under irrigation. No complaints have ever been made from the toAvn since the above system has been in force ; and no illness which could be in any Avay connected with the sewage has appeared in either the asylum oi* the neighbouring parts of the toAA-n. The scAvage thus disinfected can be turned either to the right or left, and is distributed in open trenches and AAf^ooden troughs over the jneadows, one-half being under irrigation at a time. Enormous crops of hay are grown, ;ind abundant feed for cows obtained both in summer and Avinter. A honey-combed and blackened hay rick, Avhich had taken fire in eight or ten places, and been a source of anxiety and trouble to all concerned for three or four Aveeks, whilst testifying to the firmness and strength of the grass grown in the meadows, suggested a caution in dealing with the hay obtained therefrom, which requires much more complete drying than when obtained from laud less richly manured.
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