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
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland : 7th 1865. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    31/290 (page 11)
    / Commissioners in Tiunacy for Scotland. x1 If we seek ‘to determine the relative tendency of males and Statistics females to insanity from data referring exclusively to private of dk patients, we find that, on an average of 7 years, from 1858-64, the proportion of males to females resident in asylums at Ist January was as 100 to 103.6; and that the relation when deduced from. the returns of patients placed in asylums is as 100 to 105.6. But in determining the value to be ascribed to these comparisons, it must be borne in mind that the first will be affected by the proportionally greater mortality of male. patients; and that the second must be modified to an unknown extent by the various in- fluences which relatively determine the placing in asylums of males and females. In the proportion of pauper lunacy to the population, some re- markable differences occur in different counties, For instance, in Argyllshire, in a male population of 38,928, we find 101 pauper lunatics ; and in Ayrshire only 100 in a male population of 96,994. How far such discrepancies are to be ascribed to the causes adverted to by Dr. Mitchell (Appendix, p. 242), we will not offer an opinion. In Appendix D. will be found four Tables which show the changes in the population of public asylums, private asylums, parochial asylums, and lunatic wards of poorhouses during the seven years 1858-64, and the proportions per cent. of admissions, recoveries, and deaths in each class of such establishments in each of these years. ‘The general features which they present are a higher rate of mortality in parochial asylums and lunatic wards of poor- houses than in public and district asylums; and a comparatively greater number of recoveries in parochial asylums. We have on former occasions shown that this last result is due to the less grave character of the cases admitted. In the lunatic wards of poorhouses, only patients deemed incurable are received. The transfers of patients from asylums to asylums in 1864 were as follows :-— To ny To Lunatic Asylums. | poorhouses. Total Transfers, Removed from | Private.| Pauper. | Private.| Pauper. Paupers. | Paupers. | Private.) Pauper. M.|F.| M.| F.|M.|F.1M.| F. | M. FE; Public Asylums,... | 3} 1 | 93 | 89 |...) 4|14)15) 3 | 2 8 | 246 Licensed Houses, 1)41|71 | 85}81|3 | 57) 38] .. | + 16 | 259 Parochial Asylums, | «..| ...| 4) 4] ..) «. 2) L| 4) 2 20 Lunatic Wards in POOENOUSES, ..0000 |) ovo] oo 2 Se Sg oe a ee oe ad | 1D Torars, | 4] 5 |176 182 | 8| 7 a Poe BAe | | These results are more than double those of the previous year, owing chiefly to the changes consequent on the opening of the new District Asylums. 26116 | 24 | 540 The following Tables show the number of patients admitted into asylums, the number of patients discharged recovered from asylums, and the number who died in asylums in each month of the years 1858-64 :— :