Twentieth annual report of the Somerset County Pauper Lunatic Asylum : from the 1st of January to the end of the year 1867.

  • Somerset County Pauper Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Twentieth annual report of the Somerset County Pauper Lunatic Asylum : from the 1st of January to the end of the year 1867. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    asylum was recommended, which would have accomfflo* dated 70 patients. The recommendation not meeting with the approval of the majority of the Visitors, fell to the ground, and it was resolved that any additions required for patients should he made by enlargements or altera* tions of the existing premises. Contiguous to the laundry there were dormitories made for 12 female patients. In the seventeenth report, it is stated that what is now the new hospital had been partly built, and the new west wing commenced. The asylum contained 528 patients* A Turkish bath was constructed. In the eighteenth annual report it appears that further additions were made of a new laundry and dormitory to the new Hospital. Earth closets and lavatories were added in the north wing; on the male side, a store room, and a dormitory was fitted up above the female infirmary, &c. A new and enlarged gasometer was put up. In the nineteenth annual report the new building at the farm is reported as finished, to contain 33 patients, and should any infectious disease break out, to be used as an hospital. The new building on the male side is roofed in, and the fire proof arches are being constructed. This closes the summary of additions and improvements from the open¬ ing of the asylum to the end of 1866. Since the last annual report the detached hospital for 33 patients came into full operation. It is complete in itself, provision being made therein for cooking and wash¬ ing. It has been occupied now for ten or eleven months by convalescent, orderly, and working female patients* It is to be hoped that it may not be required for the treat¬ ment of those contagious or infectious diseases, which have occurred in some other asylums. The cost of the hospital has been very small, under £20 a bed,—less than half the average cost in workhouses. It would be very desirable to have a second detached