Sixth annual report of the Inverness District Lunatic Asylum : May 1870.

  • Inverness District Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sixth annual report of the Inverness District Lunatic Asylum : May 1870. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Labourers and Out-door Workers MALES. 35 FEMALES. 7 Employed in Kitchen . • “ '' 11 Employed in Laundry. • 9 Sewing . . . * . » 30 Knitting ..... • 9 Total 89 92 The amusement and recreation of the patients are well pro¬ vided for. Music, with dancing, is a popular entertainment, but readings and cricket have been introduced with satisfactory results. There is, as we should expect among patients, so many of whom speak English imperfectly, less interest apparently taken either in newspapers and books than in many other Asylums. Among the changes which have been effected in the inside of the House, not a few have to be noted with satisfaction. The walls of several of the day-rooms have been papered or coloured; covers have been placed on some of the tables in the day-rooms ; stools and small tables have been placed in some of the corridors, and valances in the windows ; the number of pictures has been increased; and bird-cages, or flower-baskets with plants in them, have been hung in some of the corridors. It is felt that much re¬ mains to be done in the way of ornamenting the interior of the Asylum and increasing its home-like aspect, but it is clear, from what has just been said, that considerable progress is being made in this direction. Everywhere throughout the House great cleanliness was ob¬ served. The beds and bedding were in excellent order. The rooms were all well ventilated and fresh—with the exception, perhaps, of the dormitory No. 2 K, and the corresponding dormitory in the opposite side of the House, which were not quite so fresh. There was no want of cleanliness in these rooms, but for some reason, which is not apparent, their thorough ventilation has been found to be more difficult than that of the other apartments. The dis¬ agreeable smell in the chapel, which is adverted to in previous reports, and which evidently proceeds from the kitchen, is still perceptible, but it is expected that the proposed removal of the boilers to an outside erection will remedy this evil. In the supply of water to the House very important changes