Seventh annual report of the trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester. December, 1839.

  • State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Seventh annual report of the trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester. December, 1839. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    board at two dollars and fifty cents per week, when the cost more or less exceeded that sum. This excess of cost was made up, by the State appropriation. The same fund must always go to the permanent improvements and other outlays, which cannot be charged to patients as part of the annual consumption; and the residue of the fund defrays the maintenance of the poor strangers, whom the State supports at large, as well as in the Hospital. The average cost of maintenance chargeable to each patient in the past year, is about two dollars and fifty cents per week, and the Trus¬ tees have fixed that price for the coming year, except in cases, in which for special reasons, it is enlarged or abated. If the salaries paid by the State are added to the ordinary expenses, it is believed that in mere smallness of expense, this Institution may be advantageously compared with any other lunatic asylum, that deserves the name, In 1815, it was discovered, that in some English lunatic hospitals, tormenting con¬ finement, cruelty, and a brutal and degrading mode of keeping, were used, to save the expense of attendants ; and for the sake of cheapness, attendants of the most base character were employed. Such cheapness w^ould not be tolerated in Massachusetts, and has not been attempted here. The Trustees are free to say, that the payments for personal service, are the cheapest expenditures in this Institution. A minute inspection of the bills of the steward, enables us to say, that he has purchased the stores of the Hospital, with good judgment, and at as low prices, as the market would permit. No man, who remembers the addition, which a single case of disease makes to the expenses of his own household, will expect, that a small expenditure would suffice for a family of 223 sick persons. It is true, that all the patients do not need medicine at all times, but a part of them will always re¬ quire the most elaborate treatment, and for all, constant medical su¬ pervision and frequent attention, is necessary, to secure that measure of comfort, which the helpless may claim. The exemption from acute and fatal diseases in this family of invalids, is evidence, that their diet has been judicious. There have been no cases of those violent disor¬ ders, which excessive indulgence of appetite will occasion ; and the fever of the brain has not suffered the excitement, which is the invaria¬ ble effect of insufficient nourishment. It has been the aim of the of¬ ficers of the Hospital to provide every thing, and do every thing, that will most perfectly accomplish this great charity, with such economy of expense, as shall place the benefit within the reach of the largest number of its unfortunate subjects, and thus to engage the good will