Nineteenth annual report, 1883 / Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Lunatic Asylum.

  • Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nineteenth annual report, 1883 / Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Lunatic Asylum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of but little less importance, which combined to produce the insanity. While “accident or injury” may be assigned as the cause in a certain case, “religious excitement,” “fevers,” “priva¬ tion,” “over exertion,” and “intemperance in drink” may all have had a share not much inferior to the one selected for statistical purposes. There is thus an element of uncertainty in this table, for which, however, it is not easy to suggest a remedy; but it places one conclusion beyond a doubt, that, were the first four physical causes removed (and these, being the result of immor¬ ality, may be within the reach of the reformer), many of the cases of insanity for which accommodation must be provided now, would not then present themselves. The table itself is prepared, with the utmost care for accuracy, by the medical staff, none of the assigned causes being noted until after a careful enquiry has been made into the history of thb patient. When a history could not be obtained, or when it did not appear to be sufficiently trustworthy, the case was placed in the “ unknown” column, although there might be reason to suspect a definite cause. Of those discharged “ recovered” it is instructive tc note, in Table VIII., that about one-half were those of cases in which a resort to Asylum treatment was made before the attack had lasted three months. As a matter of fact in the most of these cases it had not lasted for more than three weeks. The “length of residence” in these cases, given in Table VII., shows that the great majority were discharged in less than six months after their admission. The number of discharges “recovered” naturally diminishes as their period of confinement is prolonged, and after two years only two—one in the fifth year, and another in the sixth