State of the Lincoln Lunatic Asylum (instituted November 4, 1819) : [eighteenth report].

  • Lincoln Lunatic Asylum (Lincoln, England)
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: State of the Lincoln Lunatic Asylum (instituted November 4, 1819) : [eighteenth report]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to the convicts • and even the apartment, in which the females were confined, opened into the yard of the mem there was an injurious interchange of obscenity and profanity between them, which was not restrained by the presence of the Keeper. “ In the prison, or house of correction, so called, in which were ten lunatics, two were found about seventy years of age, a male and female, in the same apartment of an upper story. The female was lying upon a heap of straw, under a broken window. The snow in a severe storm was beating through the window, and lay upon the straw around her withered body, which was partially covered with a few filthy and tattered garments. The man was lying in the corner of the room in a similar situation, except that he was less exposed to the storm. The former has been in this apartment six, and the latter twenty-one years. “ Another lunatic in the same prison was found in a plank apartment of the first story, where he had been eight years. During this time he had never left the room but twice. The door of this apartment had not been opened in eighteen months. The food was furnished through a small orifice in the door. The room was not warmed by any fire : and still the woman of the house said, “ he had never froze.” As he was seen through the orifice of the door, the first question was, “is that a human being ?” The hair was gone from one side of his head, and his eyes were like balls of fire. “ In the cellar of the same prison were five lunatics. The windows of this cellar were no defence against the storm, and, as might be supposed, the woman of the house said, “ we have a sight to do to keep them from freezing.” There was no fire, in this cellar, which could be felt by four of these lunatics. One of the five had a little fire of turf in an apartment of the cellar by herself. She was, however, infuriate, if any one came near her. This woman was committed to this cellar 17 years ago. The apartments are about 6 feet by 8. They are made of coarse plank, and have an orifice in the door for the admission of light and air, about 6 inches by 4. The darkness was such, in two of these apartments, that nothing could be seen by looking through the orifice in the door. At the same time there was a poor lunatic in each. “ A man who has grown old, was committed to one of them in 1810, and had lived in it seventeen years. “ An emaciated female was found in a similar apartment, in the dark, without fire, almost without covering, where she had been nearly two years. A colored woman in another, in which she had been six years : and a miserable man in another, in which he had been four years. We believe, from personal observation of many years, that many rov¬ ing Maniacs, who were proper subjects for a well regulated Lunatic Asylum,