The sixty-eighth report of the visitors of the County Lunatic Asylum, Stafford : for the year ending December 31st, 1886.

  • Staffordshire County Lunatic Asylum (Stafford, England)
Date:
[1887]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The sixty-eighth report of the visitors of the County Lunatic Asylum, Stafford : for the year ending December 31st, 1886. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    8/46 (page 6)
    REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS IN LUNACY-. -4-- County Lunatic Asylum, Stafford, March. 24th, 1886. We have this day concluded the inspection of this Asylum, and find there are on the hooks the names of 741 patients, 431 being males; five of these are termed private patients, but only two are really above the pauper class, the other three being criminal patients. Since the last visit, 44 men and 56 women have been admitted, 18 men and 34 women have been discharged recovered, and five men and six women relieved or not improved, one man and two women were sent away, having shown no signs of insanity since their admission. The deaths have been 21 in the male and 25 in the female division. Two of the deaths formed the subject of enquiry before the Coroner. In one the verdict was ^Apoplexy,” in the other “ Suffocation in an epileptic fit.” In this latter case, correspondence ensued between our Office and the Superintendent as to whether the blame of the patient being overlooked rested with the day-nurse just coming on duty or the night-nurse just leaving duty, and we trust that the arrangements which have been made will prevent this divided responsibility for the future. We regret to find that autopsy verified the causes assigned for the 46 deaths in 22 instances only, This is much below the average per-centage of post-mortems made in County Asylums, and we hope it will be found possible to make these examinations in nearly every case of death.