Thirty-fifth annual report on the County Pauper Lunatic Asylum / Buckinghamshire County Pauper Lunatic Asylum.

  • St. John's Hospital (Stone, Buckinghamshire, England)
Date:
[1888]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thirty-fifth annual report on the County Pauper Lunatic Asylum / Buckinghamshire County Pauper Lunatic Asylum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Two of the Commissioners in Lunacy visited the Asylum on the 16th day of June 1887, and the following is a copy of their Report upon that occasion : — Bucks Lunatic Asylum, 16th June, 1887. Eight months have elapsed since the Commissioners’ last visit. The Patients have risen in number to 179 Males, 248 Females. They comprise 379 Bucks Paupers, 30 Out-County cases, and 16 of the Private class. Four of the first-mentioned are absent on leave, without allowances. The weekly maintenance charge for Bucks cases is 9s. 4d. Of both sexes 54 have been admitted since the last inspection by Commissioners, 22 have been discharged, and 22 have died. There are vacant beds, but insufficient day-room space, for the occupants of those beds, would be the result, were the vacancies filled. There has been no change in dietary, or wages of Staff*. Currant pudding was the dinner to-day, and we noticed that many Patients refused it. Beer is still allowed, and those who work have an extra allowance. There has been no epidemic or noteworthy casualty in the Asylum, and the general health can be favourably reported upon. The Patients in bed were few, during our passage through the Wards, and the conduct of Men and Women in the Wards, and elsewhere, was orderly. The idiots, according to the returns, are 27 Males, 32 Females. There are 5 general paralytics, and 67 epileptics ; the actively suicidal are not many, but all disposed (within the knowledge of the Medical Staff) to self-destruction, are under careful and constant supervision, day and night. Seclusion and restraint have been rarely resorted to, as modes of treatment. The Staff* of Attendants, and Nurses, is, by day, weak in some Wards, as regards number; their appearance was satisfactory; for misconduct to a Patient, one Man has been discharged from the Male division. Inquiry into length of service informs us that only 3 have now been less than one year on duty ; 29 have been here over four years. Three Men and 4 Women are on duty at night. The tidyness of the Patients is creditable to those in immediate charge of them. Clothing is good, but we think, during hot weather, linen jackets, or