State of the Lincoln Lunatic Asylum (instituted November 4, 1819) : [seventeenth report].

  • Lincoln Lunatic Asylum (Lincoln, England)
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: State of the Lincoln Lunatic Asylum (instituted November 4, 1819) : [seventeenth report]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    C2S lishment: and out of thirty-six weeks that the House-Surgeon has held his present situation, twenty-five whole weeks (excepting- two days) have been passed without any recourse to such means, and even without an instance of confinement to a separate room;’7 1837, April Extract from the Thirteenth Report of the Lincoln Lunatic Asylum. “ This Asylum was originally established at a time when these Institutions were few and imperfectly understood. Under such cir¬ cumstances essential defects in principle and in the construction of the Buildings and Courts were unavoidable : but very fortunately they were of a nature to admit of remedy as completely as if they never had existed. Improvements based on actual experience have successively arisen, and have eventually produced a Construction possessing advantages which no pre-conceived theory could have devised.* <c It cannot be too widely made known that in a properly con¬ structed and well regulated Asylum, the Insane may be treated not only much more easily and effectually, but also much more mildly than at their own home, where the unadapted arrangements of the Dwelling and Grounds, and the presence of Relatives and Dependants, oppose unceasing impediments to Recovery, and often produce an aggravation of the complaint, by the restraint and close confinement which may become unavoidable under the circumstances.f “ The present House-Surgeon has expressed his own belief, founded on experience in this house, that it may be possible to conduct an Institution for the Insane without having recourse to the employment of any Instruments of Restraint whatsoever. He has certainly made * “ Errors of construction are frequently copied from one Institution on the formation of another, and are sometimes persisted in owing to the expense and inconvenience which would attend their correction, thus becoming in theii turn models for similar errors in the erection of future Buildings.” •j- “ Patients are frequently brought to this Asylum under distressing Restraints, which have been kept constantly applied for several weeks or months together, and in one instance for more than twenty years. At the Bicetre in Paris, the chains imposed at the time of admission were not ever removed till death; the humane and intelligent Pinel, after an arduous struggle with the authorities? succeeded at last in breaking through this barbarous custom, and restored the inmates to ease, comfort, and recovery.”