The annual report of the Dorset County Lunatic Asylums, Charminster and Forston, for the year ending December 31st, 1883.

  • Dorset County Lunatic Asylum (Charminster, England)
Date:
[1884]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The annual report of the Dorset County Lunatic Asylums, Charminster and Forston, for the year ending December 31st, 1883. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    A new matron, Mrs. E. Burchell of Crediton, lias also been appointed at the Forston Asylum in tbe room of Miss Chaplin, who lias only filled tbe Office for a short time since Miss Cartwright’s serious illness. A pension of £31 4s. has been granted to Miss Cartwright, her health having per¬ manently broken down in the discharge of her duties at the Asylum. The management of the two Asylums by the Medical super¬ intendent Mr. J. G. Symes merits as hitherto the full approval of the Visitors ; and the Chaplain, the Assistant Medical Officers, as well as the Head Attendants and those under their direction, have discharged their various and responsible duties to the satis¬ faction of the Visitors throughout the year. In consequence of the crowded state of the wards, especially on the female side, notice has been given to the authorities of the Surrey County Asylum under which the Surrey patients 14 in number, will be removed from these Asylums at the end of January. The Asylums were visited by two of the Commission¬ ers in Lunacy on the 30th of October. In their minute they made the following remarks :— “It is computed that there is room for 19 more males but Ifor no female patients. It is indeed obvious from the appearance of the domitories in both Asylums, not only that there is no room for any addition to the present number of female patients, but that this number is in excess of the accommodation, for all the rooms are over crowded and it is necessary, we learn, to sleep two women on the floor. There are no Out- County female patients who can be removed.” “ There are it is true 14 patients of the male sex belonging to Surrey, who will probably be ere long sent back to their County, but this will only give additional space on the male side, and although it may be possible to appropriate a male ward to female patients, this cannot be regarded as a satisfactory arrangement, or as other than a temporary expedient. In these circumstances the question of a permanent extension of the ac¬ commodation for females becomes pressing and should engage the attention of the committee.” It will have been observed that notwithstanding the decrease •lof 3 in the number of patients in the past year, there has been i an increase of 6 in the class of females. In consequence of the ^pressure in this department, the Visitors propose, as soon as the iSurrey patients are removed, to convert one of the wards on the ilmale side at Forston to the use of female patients. This ward mas already, for a time, been so used, but the Visitors agree with