Annual report of the General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland : 16th 1874

  • Great Britain. General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland : 16th 1874. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    344/356 (page 324)
    G. General Reports on Single Patients by the Deputy- Commis- sioners. Report by Dr. “Ibbald. 324 Appendix to the Sixteenth Report of the General Board of been removed from her care and placed with a stranger, with the result of greatly improving his condition both in body and mind. I regret that 1 have to repert this year the unsatisfactory termination of the attempt to provide for M. D., whose case was rather fully detailed in my report last year (vide Appendix to Fifteenth Report of the Board, pp. 290, 291). She had been removed in 1871 from the District Asylum, contrary to the advice of Dr. Tuke, the Medical Superintendent. Up till the past year she appeared to have been suitably placed as a single patient ; but during this year great restless- ness both bodily and mental supervened, and before the necessity for replacing her in the asylum suggested itself to the parochial authorities, she left the house where she was boarded, and was not found until she had wandered to Dun- dee, and tried to drown herself in the harbour. Fortunately she was frus- trated in this attempt, and was at once replaced in the asylum, where she has since remained in a condition of suicidal melancholia. Though it is to be regretted that she should have thus relapsed, it must however be borne in mind, her all the time in the asylum ; and it is even possible that such a patient might escape from the asylum and accomplish a similar journey to Dundee. On a review of the whole case it is difficult to believe that a request for discharge from the asylum, which was justified by a two years’ continuance of orderly and industrious conduct, ought to have been refused, even had the ultimate relapse been more certainly anticipated. Relative proportions of Acute, Chronic, and Congenital Insanity among Patients in Private Dwellings. The relative proportions of acute, chronic, and congenital insanity among the patients in private dwellings are important factors which ought to be dealt with in attempting to solve any of the questions that arise regarding their condition. I have accordingly classified those at present in the twenty-two counties in the follow- ing table. Had there been any very marked differences to note, the statistics of each’county might have been given; but the proportions are not so divergent, that any great advantage would have been obtained, while the general tendency of the figures would have been less easily perceived. TO THE DURATION OF INSANITY PREVIOUS TO 1873 :— Duration of Insanity. Procnthone per Cent. of each Class. a| e| & 4 a a | 2 gf g d DISTRICTS. m| sl elalela/F) sl ala I 12 = = bp Ss s re) = = &o S48 Jv Ried es) odode oe aaa A feo! Spl enc De Pea 5Sirnl|sel§}]? Inaulits;” ie ae te abt onett ek ae or BO Oe 2| 2 | 29 | 67 Highland, . SPR PS SIT | 162242 Pd Oe soars Lowland Manufacturing,| 2| 2 | 8 | 84} 113209} 1} 1] 4 | 40| 54 Southern Agricultural, 1] 6| 20| 77 |104|..]| 1| 6| 19] 74 Border,. 4.0) «8 1 je hol |. 2466s eG BOM) Too whole exten Lee ataee en ns | es | a | ee | | es | re | | | ee | ee | Total, .. : -| 6| 9 | 34 \206 | 427/632] 1] 1] 5] 30} 63 The only feature in this table to which I wish to direct attention at present is the very large proportion of congenital and chronic cases. There are only 15 cases, or 2 per cent. of the whole, where the duration of insanity is under 5 years ; and only 49, or 7 per cent. under 10 years. The remainder consist of congenital cases and those of more than 10 years’ duration, the former contributing 63, and the