Report of the Committee of Visitors, and eleventh annual report of the medical superintendent, of the asylum for the insane poor of the County of Wilts / Wiltshire County Lunatic Asylum.

  • Wiltshire County Asylum.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Committee of Visitors, and eleventh annual report of the medical superintendent, of the asylum for the insane poor of the County of Wilts / Wiltshire County Lunatic Asylum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    lias very materially increased. In 1847, when the first steps were taken for the erection of the Asylum, there were, according to the Commissioners5 Report for that year, no more than 364 “ Insane Persons, Lunatics, and Idiots,” chargeable to the different Unions; and on the 1st January, 1852, the year after the Asylum was opened, the number was still only 407; of whom 322 were in Asylums, 84 in Workhouses, and 91 with their Friends or elsewhere. IN COUNTY IN OTHER IN WORK- WITH ASYLUM. ASYLUMS. HOUSES. FRIENDS &C. TOTAL. Jan. 1, 1847 --— 181 92 91 364 1852 165 67 84 91 ' 407 1857 314 4 100 142 560 1861 350 5 121 171 647* During the nine years which have since elapsed, the increase in these numbers has been enormous; so that the Returns for the 1st January, 1861, show no less than 647 of such persons*; of whom 355 were in Asylums, .121 in Workhouses, and 171 with their Friends or elsewhere. In the ten years, the reported numbers had increased by nearly two-thirds, or at the rate of about 60 per cent. It is important to remark that the revised Act for the regulation of Public Lunatic Asylums and for the care of Pauper Lunatics (16 & 17 Viet., c. 97) came into operation during the first half * This number, however, includes 46 patients chargeable to the Boroughs of Salisbury and Devizes not enumerated in the two earlier Returns. Out of the 560, in 1857, there were 36 chargeable to these two Boroughs. For the Returns above referred to, see Annual Reports of the Wilts County Asylum, Tables 16, &c ;—Commissioners’ Further Report, 1847, p. 384—386;—Commis¬ sioners’ Fifteenth Report, 1861, p. 238. See also a concise sketch of views of the Commissioners on the above subject, in the Lancet for October 19, 1861, p. 364.