The report of the Committee of Visitors and Medical Superintendent of the Devon County Lunatic Asylum.

  • Devon County Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
[1857?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The report of the Committee of Visitors and Medical Superintendent of the Devon County Lunatic Asylum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    watchfulness a fatal result may perhaps be avoided with more certainty in these cases than when the desire takes the form of a sudden impulse, but they are not the less the occasion of constant and painful anxiety. The most mark worthy event of the past year has been the opening of the Branch Asylum at Exmouth. During the spring months the female wards were overcrowded to an extent injurious to the comfort and welfare of the Patients, and detrimental to their curative treatment. To relieve this overcrowding, and also to extend the advantages of the Institution to the Lunatic Poor chargeable to the Borough of Plymouth, the Visitors determined to enlarge the Asylum by the additional build¬ ings now in progress of erection. But the immediate admission of the Plymouth Patients was urged upon the Visitors by the Commis¬ sioners in Lunacy; and, in order to render this possible without delay, I ventured to recommend that a convenient house should be rented, in which quiet and convalescing Patients might be placed, until the new buildings were completed. This recommendation having received not only the sanction of the Visitors, but also that of the Justices of the County in Quarter Sessions, a suitable house was sought for. At the suggestion of the Court of Sessions, efforts were made to procure a house affording the needful accommodation on the sea coast, in order that the Patients removed to it might obtain the utmost advantage of a beneficial change of air and scene. After inspecting many houses, the choice fell upon one situated on a terrace, adjoining the Town of Exmouth. The advantages afforded by it are the following:—It is sufficiently large to accommodate forty Patients, with the needful staff. It has a large day-room, in which forty Patients can dine together. It is surrounded by its own walled gardens, and has private approaches and a lodge. Although placed in a line with other houses, forming a terrace which fronts the sea, it is 600 yards distant from the town. It is close to a large common bordering the sea, which affords to the Patients the means of enjoying daily exercise beyond the limits of their residence. Its only serious disadvantage is one to which it is exposed in common with all that part of the town which entitles Exmoutli to