Report of the medical officers of the Lancaster County Lunatic Asylum [for 1851] : instituted 1816.

  • Lancaster County Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the medical officers of the Lancaster County Lunatic Asylum [for 1851] : instituted 1816. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    It is true that this arrangement, till time had been afforded for due con¬ sideration, was not likely to meet with universal approval among the distant townships ; and it was strongly urged that accommodation for their own patients nearer home, where they could be more conveniently inspected by the local authorities, and more readily visited by their relatives and friends, furnished an irresistible claim for their removal. It is, perhaps, scarcely necessary, after what has been already stated, to say that, however plausible such reasoning may appear at first, it was not felt to be sufficient to justify the disturbance of existing regulations. All the patients in the Asylum are not only under the constant care of the County Officers, but are, from time to time, visited by the Magistrates, and examined and reported on by the Commissioners in Lunacy. There is therefore no probability either of neglect or undue retention ; and the small additional expense, by rail¬ way, annually incurred by a visit of a deputation from the hoard of Guardians, or by the occasional visit of friends, is altogether too insigni¬ ficant to be compared not only with the larger expenditure necessary in their removal, but also with the injurious effects likely to be produced on the patients themselves. Some of them were not in a physical condition to bear a journey, and others from lengthened residence, had formed attach¬ ments to the place, and, having become accustomed to the discipline and management of the Asylum, were comparatively happy and comfortable,— to such as these the breaking up the associations of years could have only an unfavourable effect. Notwithstanding the active measures recently adopted by the Visitors to procure a better and more constant supply of water than that furnished by storage in the reservoir, it is to be regretted that the amount during the summer months is yet far from adequate to the wants of the Asylum. The daily supply from the spring and the well does not average, in the driest season of the year, more than 10,000 gallons, and at least 16,000 gallons per day are barely sufficient to meet all the requirements of the institution. It has not been without painful apprehension, therefore, that the storage- supply in the reservoir, has been daily observed to decrease ; rigid economy has been observed in the use of this necessary element, but such economy is at all times felt to be more or less subversive of the well-being of the establishment. As there appears to be some hope of public water-works being established in the town of Lancaster, at no very distant period, and as it is at present contemplated to bring the supply over the Moor, it may be well to direct attention to this project, with a view to make such arrangements as will obviate all difficulties on this head hereafter. Hie plan of warming the galleries by ‘ steam-chests ’ has been tho¬ roughly carried out, during the past year, in the main building on the women s side; and it is gratifying to report that the system gives full satisfaction diffusing a genial and equal temperature throughout the corridors, during the winter months, at a moderate expense.