Annual report of the General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland : 7th 1865
- Great Britain. General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland.
- Date:
- 1865
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Annual report of the General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland : 7th 1865. Source: Wellcome Collection.
255/290 (page 235)
![that the patient’s guardian had sunk into greater poverty, say from the death of Appendix husband or child ; that the care of the patient, from some peculiarity of his state, F, interfered with the productiveness of the guardian to a greater degree than had been anticipated ; that the proper care of the patient involved outlays not usual] General in other cases ; etc. The increase recommended was, in all cases, small—running Reports on from 6d. to 1s. a week—to the poor, however, a more telling increase than is ~U2@tics often thought Fi in Private ey Dwellings, In four of these cases the increased allowance was at once given, with good results in all. In one it was not given, but the recommendation has been this year repeated, and J have reason to know that its propriety is now admitted. Il. In two cases a change of guardian was recommended ; the patients being considered proper cases for home management, but objection being taken to the character or capacity of the persons undertaking it. Tn both of these cases the guardian was changed ; in one of them with the most satisfactory results, but in the other the change was not productive of all the good expected. It. 'T'wo non-pauper lunatics were found in a state of extreme indigence or misery, and were brought under the notice of Parochial Boards as proper objects of reliét, Whenever the nature of these cases became known, this was at once granted. IV. In two cases removal to an asylum was recommended and carried out. The number of removals would have been somewhat larger had the District Asylum been open. In the prospect of this, two or three doubtful eases were left, for the time, at home. These, however, have now been removed. Y. In six cases the house accommodation provided for the patients was con- sidered insufficient or in bad order, and the Board issued recommendations accordingly. In three of these cases new houses were built by the parishes, of such a character as to leave nothing further to be desired. In two, the houses occupied by the patients were thoroughly repaired ; and in the remaining case, the patient was transferred to another house, which, however, had not been very judiciously selected. VI. In seven cases the sleeping accommodation of the patients was thought objectionable ;—the bed was in an out-house, or in an open garret, or it was ruinous, or it was otherwise, in respect of comfort, below the beds in which the other members of the family slept. In all of these cases but one a greater or less effort has been made to carry out the recommendations of the Board. In four of the cases the result has been quite satisfactory, and in two partially so. VII. In one case an insane person was visited who was in receipt of parochial relief, but who had not been intimated to the Board as a pauper lunatic. When attention was called to it, this omission was repaired without delay. VIII. In two cases such advice as to treatment was given as has led to distinct improvement of the mental disease, and many others have been benefited in this way, though in a Jess marked manner than in the two cases referred to. IX. Greater attention to cleanliness was recommended in several cases, and in several of these there was pleasing evidence of an effort to obey the recom- mendation. X. Supplies of body-clothing or bed-clothing were recommended in fifteen cases, and given in all of them, though in some with more liberality than in others. Parochial money is never laid out more wisely or humanely than when it is expended in this way. The importance of having the pauper single patients decently and warmly clothed, and comfortably bedded, cannot be overestimated. To this I have frequently had occasion to draw the attention of the Com- missioners. The ragged cast-off coat or battered hat of a gentleman has led many an idiot or imbecile into the hands of the police, and thence for life into an asylum as a dangerous lunatic, It is a great mistake to allow such persons to be dressed so as to make them kenspeckle objects on our roads and streets, thus attracting the notice of the thoughtless, by whom they are teased and provoked into acts which bring them under the notice/of the Fiscal. This is one view of the case, and an important one; but it must also be remembered that warm and sufficient clothing enables this class of persons to be much in the open air, while 7»](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31856251_0255.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
