Thirty-first annual report of the directors of James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics, near Perth. June 1858.

  • James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thirty-first annual report of the directors of James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics, near Perth. June 1858. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    urged to publish more frequently or at greater length—such is the demand for it. But it may be advisable to take this opportunity of stating that it does not profess, and was never intended, to appear at stated periods : its issues will rather be “ few and far between ”— thrown off from our pens and our press when the spirit is in us, merely to attest our viability, and to chronicle the most prominent or important episodes or epochs in our history. It is the highest ambi¬ tion of many of the patients to have their doings, sayings, and writings chronicled in the pages of our humble bifolial. One gentle¬ man has catered most zealously for subscribers, and not without golden results. The editor has constantly on hand—for he is ever receiving—a quantity of MSS. on every conceivable subject, but chiefly relating to transactions occurring within our walls. Among recent subjects of inspiration we may mention Gheel Colonies and the treatment of Dipsomania. The Museum is slowly being enlarged ; Museum, and the Bazaar is prospering quietly. Donations to the museum, Bazaar- bazaar, and library are regularly chronicled in “Excelsior.” Our Dorcas Society sent a contribution of their workmanship to the Pitfour go^ifty Bazaar for the erection of baths and washing-houses in Perth ; and the ladies of our community are always ready to lend a favourable ear to appeals on behalf of charitable purjDoses. The Concerts of the winter season, which were 3 in number, were Concerts, rendered unusually attractive and efficient by the proffered assistance of several professional singers from Perth and its neighbourhood, of Assistance o ip IProfsssioiiSi] whom we would specify as particularly worthy of our thanks, the Musicians. Messrs Kennedy, Mr Gray, and Miss Fleming. At most of these concerts—as at most of our public amusements—visitors were present from town. This kind of association of the sane with the insane we Association have ever found most beneficial. The self-control exercised by the Sane, patients in presence of strangers is most marked : and there is a strong effort made so to behave as to entitle them to the privilege of associat¬ ing and mixing themselves with the outer world. The inmates are proud of displaying the produce of their pens and pencils, or of narrat¬ ing the history of their games or amusements to sympathising and intelligent visitors, in whom a display of affability and sociability never fails to educe a corresponding manifestation of confidence and love in