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Lunacy in many lands / by G.A. Tucker.

  • Tucker, George A.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lunacy in many lands / by G.A. Tucker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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  • Found on image 1347 / 1626 (page 1307)…on. A perfect pandemonium— Wretched room. lu a day-room at the end of the corridor a perfect pandemonium existed. Fifty women were rStened in various ways—straps, jackets, hobbles, &c.,—their feet being blue with cold. In no stitution had I heard more noise and ujjroar, but here the crying and howling were dreadful. Ser...
1347/1626 (page 1307)
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A perfect pandemonium— Wretched room. lu a day-room at the end of the corridor a perfect pandemonium existed. Fifty women were rStened in various ways—straps, jackets, hobbles, &c.,—their feet being blue with cold. In no stitution had I heard more noise and ujjroar, but here the crying and howling were dreadful. Servants ere feeding the patients, as they sat or stood, with wooden spoons. The room contained eighty itients in all, attended by seven servants. Round the room were fixed foi'ms with railed backs. The oset adjoining was similar to others I have already described in this Institution. Altogether this om presented a most wretched spectacle. Patients strapped to beds—Five years in one room. In an adjacent associated room there were eighty beds, with seven patients fastened in bed. tiey looked clean. Opening off this room are fourteen strong-rooms, having two beds in each, with irtable boards between, over the mosaic floor, in lieu of carpets. The windows are high up, the lower ilf glazed, and the upper fitted with a sliding shutter, worked by means of a rope, to regulate the ;ht. Some patients were fastened in beds, and some in restraint chairs, beds and chairs being fixed the floor. I was shown a patient who had been five years in one of these rooms, and had been an mate of the Asylum for six years. Another woman had been so confined for a longer period, but had ten out for a short time last year. These patients were without occupation or amusement. There were other sets of seclusion rooms, with patients similarly secured. The rooms, as a rule, pre clean. Some of the patients were fed by a nasal tube. Fastened to the walls. In the dining-room of the first floor twenty jaatients were fastened to the walls, as already (scribed. The food was being served out on a low table, from a cauldron. Servants were feeding le patients under restraint. There was the greatest possible noise and discord in the place. 1 On the second floor a back day-room is devoted to unclean patients, several of whom were cured in various ways. In an adjoining room the patients were taking food from tins, there being 'i tables. In another day-i-oom at the end of a long corridor ten women were under restraint, and ptened as before described. A like number of women were secured in an adjacent associated bed- |om. Some of the patients under restraint had broad leather collars round the neck and shoulders, ither mittens, and covered iron wristlets. 213 patients under restraint. In all I counted some 213 patients under restraint. Kemarks— Chained to the oar. The place on the whole was clean, and the patients fairly dressed but very noisy, though not igressive. I never heard more noise in any Asylum. The occupation of the patients was not ignored, t more might be found for them, as well as amusement of one kind or another. I noticed in the andry several leather-covered fetters hanging uj), and I was informed that if a patient refused to jrk these were applied for fastening her to the tub-stand. Opinions of Superintendent. The Superintendent informs me that he thinks 600 patients could be individually treated and served by the Superintendent in one Asylum. He assigns pellagra and hysteria as the chief causes insanity within the range of his observation. He has noticed an increase of melancholia over miacal insanity, especially in cases of pellagra. He adopts moral and medical treatment according the form of the insanity. He has not observed any increase in general paralysis, such cases being re, nor can he say that insanity is increasing beyond the ratio of increase in population. He does t think that insanity is more curable now than formerly. Italy.—Venice St. Sevolio Asylum for Males. j Drs. F. Stefano and L. Brajon, Directors. An Island—Main buildings—Offices, &c.—Grounds—Situation. This Inp^titution, with garden and grounds, is surrounded by walls, which rise out of the water, |d was originally, no doubt, one of the mud banks or islands which constitute the city of Venice, le main buildings are at one end of the island, and consist of a number of quadrangular blocks and ngs, with court-yards between, one part, of some size, being laid out as an enclosed garden. Behind le main buildings are ranges of dormitories and offices. The rest of the island consists of garden d grounds, well laid out and planted. The main buildings are from one to three stories in height, |d of red brick. The place was formerly a monastery, and is about half-an-hour's gondola journey [)m Venice proper. It is conducted by a religious brotherhood. Vestibule—Exhibition room—Music-room. The entrance is into a large vestibule, the roof of which is svipported by tall columns ; floors of inetian mosaic ; marble or plaster busts of former Directors round the walls ; covered settees, tables, k This department is used as a waiting or visiting room. To the right a stone corridor leads to a |pm containing work of the patients in straw, carvings in wood, toys, &c. The windows are on one r
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