Forty-sixth annual report of the directors of the Glasgow Royal Asylum for Lunatics, submitted, in terms of their charter, to general meeting of contributors, 12th January, 1860.

  • Glasgow Royal Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Forty-sixth annual report of the directors of the Glasgow Royal Asylum for Lunatics, submitted, in terms of their charter, to general meeting of contributors, 12th January, 1860. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    same absolutely, and nearly the same proportionally, as in the two preceding years. This increase is to be ascribed to tbe exhausted condition and bodily disease of a number of tbe Females. It is to be remarked that more than one-tbird of the deaths occurred in Patients who were admitted a short time before their decease. In their Report for last year, the Directors noticed the death of a gentleman who had been forty years under their care, and they have now the painful duty to refer to the death, nearly at the close of the year, of another gentleman who was by far the oldest residenter in the Asylum, he having been a Patient since 1816—- about 44 years. To him the Asylum had all the asso¬ ciations of a cherished home. He often related, with all the tenacity of memory and minuteness of detail which characterise the traditional “oldest inhabitant” of the newspaper press, stories of the former history of the In¬ stitution; embracing the peculiarities of Patients long since passed away, and anecdotes of Directors, Medical Officers, Officials, and Attendants of former times. Hot long before his death, in conversation with a gentleman who often had occasion to visit him, he related some of these about the old Asylum, with an accuracy which showed how clear his memory still was with regard to impressions made upon his mind at a distant period. With the majority of his fellow Patients, his age, his venerable appearance, his standing as the “Father” of the Institution, not less than his many most estimable qualities, had deservedly rendered him a great favourite. He was a regular attendant at Divine service, whenever his state of health permitted; and latterly, when the state of his mind was calm and tranquil, he invariably con-