Twenty-second annual report of the Suffolk Lunatic Asylum : December, 1859.

  • Suffolk Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
[1860]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Twenty-second annual report of the Suffolk Lunatic Asylum : December, 1859. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/52 (page 9)
    As we felt our way, and in the progressive course we adopted, we were enabled to introduce great and valuable changes in the social and domestic arrangements with the patients and the household. We gradually abolished all personal restraint, and we are in possession of documents testifying to an earlier introduction of the principle of non¬ coercion, than some to whom it has been attributed, and when it was meeting with only very qualified approbation, and in some instances decided objection from the official authori¬ ties.v We have now lived to see a hope realized which we expressed in a report of this House in 1839, “ that the test of good management in all our Asylums would be, the non-re¬ straint system entirely carried out, constant employment actively promoted, and a liberal diet universally secured.” We forbad all work upon the Sabbath, stopped the clatter of the steam engine, and to the no small provocation of some laundry women, urged their attendance at church in the place of their labours in the wash-house. We refused to allow Sun¬ day as the day for holiday visits, as we found that too often the patients became the objects of mere curiosity, and some sus¬ ceptible minds were hurt. The establishment of family prayer, at which any of the patients who wished to join were welcomed, did vast good; it promoted a feeling of unity which to this hour has never been disturbed. At this early period to which we are adverting, the subject of religious instruction to the insane was a controversial theme, and the Legislature had only just sanctioned (in 1831) the appointment of Chaplains to Asylums. This step led to much discussion, which was carried on for some time with undue zeal upon the one hand, and undue fear upon the other. Religious duties had been heretofore confided to the governor or master as he was then called, whose education was certainly not such as lead to much advantage. When * Commissioners Report, 1843-44, page 143, 165.