On the plans of modern asylums for the insane poor / by John Sibbald.

  • Sibbald, John, 1833-1905.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the plans of modern asylums for the insane poor / by John Sibbald. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    In regard to the annual cost of management of Alt-Scherbitz, I found it impossible to ascertain from published documents such data as would enable me to compare it with the cost of manage- ment of other German asylums. Dr Paetz has, however, been so kind as to supply me with information on this subject. The following is a translation of part of a letter which 1 have recently received from him :— I have already dealt with the cost of maintenance of third class patients in this asylum in my book, Die Colonisirung der Geisteskranken, pages 192-193. The cost of board (Bekostigung) since then has remained substantially without change, and amounts to 230 Marks (£11, 10s.) per annum, or about 60 Pfennige (7d.) per diem for each patient. The cost of management (allgemeinen Kosten) has somewhat diminished, and amounts on the average to 270 Marks (£13, 10s.), the total cost for maintenance and manage- ment being thus about 500 Marks (£25) per annum for each patient.* In regard to this, it must be kept in view— 1. That the calculation of the cost of management is a quite arbitrary one, as I have already stated on page 193, and cannot be satisfactorily compared with the figures of other asylums, as the cost of management is almost everywhere calulated on different principles. 2. That the cost of management for this asylum appears greater than it really is, because it includes several building expenses and outlays on stock properly belonging to the original cost of erecting and providing the institution, which are being gradually paid off out of the revenue for current management. 3. That the profits from our estate management are not included in our figures, as the estate and the asylum have quite separate sets of account?. The capital sunk in the purchase of the property bears interest, independently, from 5 to 7 per cent. * Under Bekostigung Dr Paetz includes only food and clothing; under allegemeinen Kosten he includes salaries to officials, cost of administration, repairs to buildings, and other miscellaneous expenses.