Nineteenth annual report of the trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester. December, 1851.

  • State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nineteenth annual report of the trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester. December, 1851. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    given to outward means so large a measure of success in alleviating the saddest affliction of humanity. In the review of the past year, it is not the least gratifying consid¬ eration that there has been no change, nor occasion to desire change, of any of the principal officers or agents of the establishment. The accomplished Superintendent, giving, as ever, his head and his heart, as his labor and his time, to the arduous and fearfully responsible duties of his place,—with his skilful and attentive Assistants, the Rev¬ erend Chaplain, the efficient and provident Steward, the judicious Matron, the watchful and compassionate Supervisors, the diligent Clerk, and the able and accurate Treasurer, have continued to ex¬ ercise their respective offices with accustomed fidelity, and with the higher qualifications and capacities for usefulness, which opportunities for enlarged observation and added experience could not fail to impart. Indeed, so true to duty, and so acceptable in its performance, have all connected with the Hospital proved, that scarce a change has been had, even among the Subordinates ; and, as a natural consequence, all has been harmony, mutual confidence, and earnest cooperation. For circumstances so satisfactory in the past, and so auspicious for the future, the Institution is, in a great degree, indebted to the wise coun¬ sels, the patient temper, and the kind and affectionate demeanor of that truly great and good man, now no more, who first gave order and direction to the management of its concerns, and built up this fairer than marble monument to his own enduring name and memory ; and to his yet only Successor, who, in the light of his instruction and example, and by his own unceasing personal observation and enlarged experience, so worthily and successfully continues the superintendence of its great and complicated interests. Although this establishment is still over-crowded with patients, far beyond its desirable means of accommodation, yet the completion and occupation, the last season, of the additional number of strong rooms to the south Johonnot wing, and the measures more recently taken by the Government for the erection of another Hospital, have precluded the thought of a further enlargement of the present buildings. In the judgment of those professionally best qualified to decide on such sub¬ jects, this Institution is already extended to the utmost limit at which it should be left under one superintendence. Indeed, it may well be hoped, that, in the capacities of the new establishment, the pressure now so necessary upon the accommodations here, may be materially re¬ lieved ; and by a proper classification of the patients, and a more entire separation of the classes, affording better opportunity for their appropri¬ ate management, the higher purposes of the Hospital, in its remedial and