Annual report of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum for the year 1848.

  • Royal Edinburgh Asylum.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum for the year 1848. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/36 (page 15)
    Of these methods the two first give results which are appa- rently the most favourable, and the two last those which appear the least so, if a short period only is included in the calculation. But it is worthy of remark, that by the last method, if the average number annually resident in the Asylum remains the same, the per centage of cures will appear to increase regularly with every additional year that is included in the calculation ; so that in an Asylum where there is a small average number resident, and where the per centage of cures may be only 15 or 16 if calculated on a single year, by taking periods of 3 or 4 years, it will increase to 25 or 30 per cent., or by including 10 or 15 years, it may rise to 40 or 43 per cent. The reason of this is obvious;—in taking the per centage of cures annually the average number resident is repeated in each calculation, but in taking the per centage on a period of years it is included only once, so that every year the calculation approaches nearer and nearer to one founded on the admissions only. All the methods are more or less fallacious, and the results in one Asylum can only be compared with those of another when the methods of calculation are the same, and when the Institu¬ tions are similarly situated in respect to numbers, manage¬ ment, and the nature of the cases admitted. It would be out of place here to enter into an examination of the comparative merits of the different methods of computation, these have been amply discussed elsewhere ; but it may suffice to state, that those uniformly adopted in your Reports are the two w hich are considered by the best authorities on the subject to afford the fairest estimate of the results, and those which are commonly used in the Reports of the best managed Asylums. They have been employed, therefore, not only as the fairest, but also for the sake of uniformity; while, at the same time, the details are given with sufficient minuteness to enable any one to calculate the results according to any other method which may be required for statistical purposes. The number admitted into the Eastern Department, that occupied by the higher classes only, keeps pace with former years, and the results are worthy of being distinguished in a separate table. b 2