Report by Her Majesty's Commissioners appointed to inquire into the state of lunatic asylums in Scotland : and the existing law in reference to lunatics and lunatic asylums in that part of the United Kingdom. With an appendix.

  • Scotland. Royal Lunacy Commission.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report by Her Majesty's Commissioners appointed to inquire into the state of lunatic asylums in Scotland : and the existing law in reference to lunatics and lunatic asylums in that part of the United Kingdom. With an appendix. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    119/944 (page 77)
    lunatic wards attached to poorliouses, or removed them ^Jondition of to private licensed houses. ments. The removals have been principally from the Asy- ^.j^^^^ lums of Glasgow and Perth, and more recently from Asji^^ms. that of Edinburgh. The cause of the removal of — o , TT^Ti 1 Kates 01 I'ay- patients from the Asylums of Perth and iLdmburgb, as ment. shown in the evidence (Appendix M) is solely that of economy, the parishes finding they could keep their lunatics at lower rates elsewhere. In the case of the Glasgow Asylum, difficulties thrown in the way of admitting- certain cases, seem to have had some share in determining the parochial authorities to seek for other accommodation, or were at least made the pretext for so doing. Be this as it may, the authorities of the City parish at Glasgow have recently fitted up the old asylum, or Town's Hospital, for the reception of the pauper lunatics belonging to the parish. Lunatic wards have also been attached to the poorhouse of the Barony parish; and the parish of Govan has removed all its pauper lunatics to the licensed house of Langdale, near Bothwell. Thus three of the most populous parishes, in the immediate neighbourhood of the Glasgow Asylum, no longer send any cases there, unless in exceptional instances, when they are required to do so by the Sheriff. Large sums, derived from various sources, have been expended by the managers of the chartered asylums, in the purchase of land and in the erection of buildings, so that the item of rent, in the shape of interest on debt, or feu-duty, does not, except in the cases of Edinburgh and Glg-sgow, require any large provision to be now made for it. The expenditure of an asylum, therefore, is limited chiefly to articles of consumption, and to the salaries and wages of the officers and attendants. In this respect, the chartered asylums possess advantages over other establishments, seeking to secure patients by charging lower rates for their maintenance. Hence it is clear, that the rates charged in the chartered asylums must either be higher than necessary, or else that the rates in licensed houses and poorhouses must be too low to per- mit of justice being done the patients. This remark is perhaps strictly applicable only to houses receiving, like