ADMINISTRATION: VISITORS' REPORT BOOKS

The Commissioners in Lunacy (later Board of Control) visitor books (H64/A/10/001-002) contain detailed reports giving status and conditions, treatment, diet, clothing and other aspects with comments and suggestions.

H64/A/10/003 contains short descriptions made by general visitors to the hospital. Visitors varied from surgeons, directors of asylums, persons visiting patients such as Curate of Fairlight, Sussex, the Private Secretary to the Marquis of Westminster and Princess Felix John Salm-Salm (original letter pasted into book, 1873) ,and a number of overseas visitors from France, Germany, New York and Spain.

Copied into the volume is a letter from Elizabeth Fry (nee Gurney) (1780-1845), prison reformer and social reformer of 54 Devonshire Street, Portland Place to Mrs Stinton, Matron of the Hospital, dated April 1831, which had been sent following her and her sister Mrs Hannah Buxton's visit to the Female Wards. She gives comments and suggestions for improvements including the use of straw for bedding for 'incurable' patients without clothing, and also the following:

'I think advantage would result from a great variety of books of rather an amusing nature...its is very important to have the mind properly occupied &[and] the attention engaged as far as it can be'.

The Commissioners in Lunacy were established by the 1845 Lunacy Act. The responsbility was later taken over by the Board of Control. Their main functions included:

1) monitoring provision of asylum accommodation for pauper lunatics;

2) and the transfer of pauper lunatics from workhouses and outdoor relief to asylums

3) regulating the treatment of pauper lunatics in licensed houses and hospitals;

4) regulating the conduct of hospitals except Bethlem;

5) acting in place of courts as the authority monitoring admission to all types of asylum with respect to the preservation of civil liberties;

6) monitoring discharges with respect to the protection of the public;

7) collecting information on the treatment of lunacy throughout England and Wales;

8) advising on the development of law and public policy on the treatment of lunacy; and

9) licensing and visiting 'madhouses' in the London area.

They visited Saint Luke's Hospital on a regular basis and reported their findings and their requirements for any alterations.