Thirty-sixth annual report of the trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester. October, 1868.

  • State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thirty-sixth annual report of the trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester. October, 1868. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    cuted in the house, in the shops and in the gardens and on the farm are necessarily omitted. But when I remind you that last year nearly thirty thousand days’ work were accomplished, and nearly the same amount in each of several previous years, you will be ready to believe that a respectable degree of indus¬ try has marked the year just closed. The great disproportion between the employed and the aggre¬ gate number of patients is always noticed and often commented upon. Those persons who regard this disproportion unfavorably are apt to overlook .the greatly impaired physical condition of a large majority of insane persons. Regarding as I do occupation as one of the most important curative agents in the treatment of insanity, and urging its adoption upon all, both in and out of my own hospital, it ought of course to be my desire to bring this curative agent into full force. When we look for a moment at the population of the house, it is evident that we cannot draw to a much greater extent upon the fluctuating portion of it for carrying on the process of either trade or farm labor. This class of our patients, to us, improve, or recover and go away. During a large part of the time they are with us, they not only are unfit for labor, but re¬ quire extraordinary care and attention to preserve their health and lives. Then, the smaller class who sicken and die are not to be regarded in reference to any plan of occupation. If we turn our attention to the more fixed population, we shall find indolence is one of the most marked characteristics of dementia, and that incapacity for useful employment is quite frequently the measure of imbecility. The general paralytics and epileptics, who comprise classes of large and increasing numbers, are, aside from all considerations of their physical condition, too uncertain and too dangerous for any sort of occupation. It is worthy of remark, that though the employments of the male patients are distributed among a great number of trades, we can claim at any one period but very few competent workmen, in any one of them most useful to the institution. Few indeed are there able to perform daily labor. For example, we have had committed to our care during the past year four masons, one of whom was discharged at the end of one week, one is upwards of seventy years of age, one is