Twenty-fifth 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, 16th June, 1845.

  • Dundee Royal Asylum for Lunatics.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Twenty-fifth 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, 16th June, 1845. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and returns from Newport in Fifeshire every half-hour. Another source of amusement can now be obtained by means of a billiard table; and, also, from part of one of the airing-court walls, which has been prepared for the purpose of enabling the patients who are fond of such exercise, to play at hand-ball. They are allowed to keep various animals which they make pets of, and hence rab¬ bits and peacocks are to be seen in the airing courts, and birds, &c., in the rooms, which are fed and taken care of solely by the patients themselves. Many of our patients having been long addicted to the use of tobacco, snuff, confectionery, and other luxuries before admission, cannot well do without them after they come here, and, therefore, if not contra-indicated, they are indulged with some of them in moderation. These articles, in fact, are in our hands just part of the general plan of treatment, and many a time we have found them to be of essential service not only to the patients themselves, hut also to the House. We may add, as it is of the last importance to keep up a system of order and regu¬ larity, that our principal visits are made punctually at certain hours, and that all the general business of the House relative to the patients’ food, &c., continue to be regulated by the sound of a bell. It only remains to state that family-worship continues to be performed in each of the day rooms every morning and evening as formerly, and with the best effects. Nothing can be more grati¬ fying than to hear the voice of praise on these occasions as well as in our chapel, and to observe the orderly and decorous conduct of the patients. At the administration of last sacrament, a patient was received as a communicant in one of the Town’s Churches. The general mode of treatment, it will thus be seen, is in accordance with the newest and most effective practice in cases of lunacy. As one of the results of this treatment, it is very satisfactory to observe that our patients are never under any fear or apprehension of consequences when making complaints. This absence of dread is strikingly manifested when visiters enter the rooms, workshops, airing courts, or gardens; for in all these places they invariably hear the thoughts of the patients just as they occur at the moment, and often in the most unmeasured tone and language. The uniform cry of the latter is always of liberty— I am sound in mind, who dare say I was ever otherwise ? I