Twenty-third annual report of the directors of the Dundee Royal Asylum for Lunatics : submitted, in terms of their charter, to a general meeting of the directors, 19th June, 1843.

  • Dundee Royal Asylum for Lunatics.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Twenty-third annual report of the directors of the Dundee Royal Asylum for Lunatics : submitted, in terms of their charter, to a general meeting of the directors, 19th June, 1843. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    three of whom were admitted within a period of six days. We are happy to state, with deepest gratitude, that, notwithstanding so many cases, requiring the most unremitting watchfulness hotli during night and day, no accident even of the slightest nature has happened to any of them. There was one patient of this class who occasioned more than usual trouble and anxiety—the desire for self-destruction being so strong that the attempt was frequently made, not only in private, but even in presence of a considerable number of individuals. Act 4 and 5, V. It.—We have four patients who have been sent here in virtue of the powers given by theAct of Parliament, passed last year, lor dangerous and fatuous lunatics. If firmly and temperately administered, this act promises to be of great benefit to the country at large. General Health.—Notwithstanding the continued preva¬ lence of disease in Dundee and neighbourhood, the Asylum has been unusually healthy. During the winter quarter of the year, when the town was most unhealthy, there did not occur a single death within the walls of the Asylum, and the number during: the whole year amounted only to nine—all old cases. We have a good many very old and hopeless cases in the house paralytic and asthmatic, whose health requires the greatest atten¬ tion, especially during the cold season. There has nothing happened during the year of such impor¬ tance as to require particular notice. The duties and events of one week or one month have been just the same as those of every* other week or month throughout the year. With the exception of the great increase in the number of suicidal patients, there* lias also been nothing particularly interesting or remarkable in the* cases themselves. Beyond, therefore, the fact of the continued prosperity of the Institution, we have little else to report this year.! In the Twenty-first Deport we noticed the cases of a few in-j dividuals who fancied themselves to be “ gods.’5 One of these!