Twenty-eighth annual report of the Somerset County Pauper Lunatic Asylum : from the first of January to the end of the year 1875.

  • Somerset County Pauper Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Twenty-eighth annual report of the Somerset County Pauper Lunatic Asylum : from the first of January to the end of the year 1875. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    would have occurred, inasmuch as decrease of temperature especially amongst the aged and infirm is a sure cause of mortality. But the deaths have been chiefly among epileptic and paralysed cases, besides the aged and helpless, and have occurred at all seasons of the year. Three deaths necessitated a Coroner’s Inquest. The first was on a man aged 41, who died a few days after admission from exhaustion after Mania. The second was an old man aged 70, sent from Keynsham Union in very cold weather (the snow lying deep on the ground, and very inadequately clothed), received in a thoroughly chilled and helpless condition, and who died on the second day after admission. The third was on an Epileptic “found dead.” This patient had slept in the ward specially put aside for epileptics, and under the supervision of a nurse specially appointed to look after such cases at night. When seen last by the night nurse at 6.30 a.m. (prior to going off duty) was alive ; when visited half-an-hour afterwards by the day nurse was found dead. Some more stringent restrictions however should be enforced as regards the admission of persons only in second childhood. Notice has already been taken of the great ages at which some of the patients were when brought to the Asylum, namely, 88, and 94. These cases can only live for a short time, and surely might be cared for elsewhere. It only seems incredible how such curiosities of longevity can ever be certified to be insane. In the 1st Quarter there were 18 Deaths; 14 males, 4 females. if 2nd if a jf 17 tf 5 „ 12 a 1f 3rd if a a 21 >f 15 » 6 a )' 4th f> >) a 21 a 17 „ 4 a Total • • • 77 51 26 OCCUPATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS. Not the least successful of many honourable reforms in the modern humane treatment of persons temporarily deprived of