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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![1. Position and proportion to wall space.—In most asylums, both in Europe and America, the windows bear a proportion of about one-sixth to the wall space, but thcj vary in this respect considerably; almost all, however, are sufficient to make the room cheerful and liijht, and to assist materially in ventilation. In the vast majority of asylums, the windows are placed completely within reach of the patients, and they are usually so low in the day rooms as to enable the patients to see out of thein when treated on a chair or form near. In some asylums, as at Derby, where a passage of communication for the service of the house is placed at the back of the ward,^ the windows of the dormitories are placed over it, and are thus high and out of reach of the patients, giving the rooms a very dismal appearance ; this depends on structure,—but at Meerenberg nearly all the dormitory Avindows are purposely placed completely out of reach. In other asylums, as at Colney Hatch, the windows in the day rooms for the violent class of ])atients are placed high and out of reach; but this is not a common arrangement in day rooms, though common in the seclusion cells in both British and Continental asyhniis. 2. Material and mode of opening.—In the older British asylums the u indow frames are usually of iron, and open either by a sash (which, with iron frames, is singularly heavy and'^inconvenient), or on a pivot perpendicularly—the openings being merely narrow .slits, as at Bethlehem, the form of which is well kuoAvn ; or wider, and less prison-like, •AS at Leicester (see Appendix F, Fig. 7), and in the violent wards of the Murthly A sylum,—or in sections outwards, either the upper tliird, or a portion of it, being usually made to open. In this form the iron frame is, almost always, continued over the opening, in the shape of bars. In all these forms the window can only be opened by an attendant's key. In the more recently built asylums, and in almost all' the more recent additions to the older institutions, the \vindows for the ordiiiary Avards are made either of wrought- iron cross pieces, set in wooden frames, or they are entirely of wood ; and the mode of opening is usuallv by means of a doiible sash, chocked top and bottom to 4 inches, so as to prevent the windows being opened beyond that extent. By some superintendents the iron cross pieces set in the wooden frame, are considere'd much the best form of vrindow ; but others object to it—first, on account of its expense ; and, secondly, because of the breakage which is caused in all glass set in iron tVames, through the shrinking of the metal in cold weather; and they consider the window frames entirely of wood—w^hich have been fitted in several of the most recently built institutions, as the New Surrey, the New Stafford, and the Murthly and Cupar Asylums—as the best form. The advantages of the opening by means of the ordinary double hung sash, permanently chocked top and bottom, so as to prevent the window opening beyond the extent of 4 or 5 inches, are almost universally admitted in England : and this method is adopted in nearly all new institutions. An improvement on the permanent chock has, however, been fitted to the windows in the additions to the Prestwich and old Chester Asylums, and in the New Surrey. At the two former the upper sash is permanently chocked, so as to open to a distance of 5 inches only ; but in the lower half there is no permanent wooden chock, but a strong lock is let into the window frame, and when the bolt is shot out it enters a slit in the window jamb, so that the window can be opened to 5^ inches, or closed at ])leasure ; but by shooting back the bolt, which is doDie by an attendant's key, the window can be opened to the full height. The slit in the jamb is guarded by a metal plate, like an ordinary bolt plate, except in being much longer. (See Appendix F, Pig. 9.) At the New Surrey both sashes are capable of being opened to the full extent, or chocked at a height of 5 inches, by means of locks fitted in the frames ; but the superintendent. Dr. Brushfield, reports the arrangement of bolts as complicated, and liable to get out of order. He expresses his preference for the plan used at Chester, and invented by himself, which, he says, is simpler, cheaper, and more efficacious. In the United States the double sash is in general use for asylum windows. The frames are sometimes entirely of wood, and open freely both at top and bottom, in which case there is a wrought iron grating (the bars of which correspond to the flivisions of the windows, and are not seen when the window is shut) placed outside. Sometimes the upper half is of iron, and fixed, and the lower half of Avood, opening freely.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21292450_0056.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
