Report of the Committee of Visitors of the Lunatic Asylum for the Borough of Birmingham, presented to the Town Council on the twenty-eigth of March, 1854, being their third annual report : together with the reports of the Medical Superintendent and Chaplain also an account of the receipts and payments to the end of the year 1853.

  • Birmingham Borough Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Committee of Visitors of the Lunatic Asylum for the Borough of Birmingham, presented to the Town Council on the twenty-eigth of March, 1854, being their third annual report : together with the reports of the Medical Superintendent and Chaplain also an account of the receipts and payments to the end of the year 1853. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Institutions, up to tlie end of the year 1852, averaged 20 per cent, upon the admissions, and 34 per cent, upon the dis¬ charges : the Birmingham, as before stated, being 18 and 31 per cent. An analysis of the Obituary Table gives the following results : First, as regards the state of bodily health of the forty-seven patients at the time of their admission. It appears that twelve were the subjects of general paralysis ; three of ordinary paralysis—one of the latter having many bad bed sores; eight were epileptic-—two of these were in a very feeble state, one had disease of the heart, and two were paralytic also; four are noted as being much exhausted, one of them having syphilis, and two being badly bruised as well as helpless One had pneumonia ; one asthma ; one dysentery ; three disease of the brain ; one disease of the heart. Eight are noted as being in feeble health, the cause not being ascertained : thus leaving five only whose health was anything like good. Secondly, as to the causes of death. It was ascertained by post-mortem examination that in sixteen cases death took place solely from disease of the brain or its membranes ; and that in sixteen other cases it arose from disease of the brain, conjoined in six with hepatization of the lungs, in six with tubercular disease of the lungs, in one with cancer of the stomach, in one with tubercular disease of the kidneys, and in two with dysentery. Three deaths were caused by epilepsy; one by hydro-thorax ; one by phthisis; and one by disease of the heart, in which little or no disease could be detected in the brain. In nine cases no post-mortem examination was made, chiefly because objected to by the friends. The fatal event in these cases appeared to arise in two from paralysis; in two from bronchitis supervening upon paralysis ; in one from apoplexy ; in one from old age ; and in two from maniacal exhaustion. Five deaths took place within a week after admission, and four others within a fortnight.