Twenty-seventh annual report of the Somerset County Pauper Lunatic Asylum : from the first of January to the end of the year 1874.

  • Somerset County Pauper Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Twenty-seventh annual report of the Somerset County Pauper Lunatic Asylum : from the first of January to the end of the year 1874. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    in the obituary for the year, the causes of death being (with two exceptions from erysipelas) the same as usually occur in asylums. Many patients however are still brought to the Asylum in a painfully unsatisfactory state, only very shortly to die, some in extremely bad bodily health, others very advanced in years, or only in early childhood. It is pitiable to have to draw the attention of the public once again to this latter fact, but during the last year two patients have been admitted, the youngest being 8 years old, the oldest 87, with intermediate ones between 75 and 87. These latter persons, simply in their dotage, im¬ proper cases therefore for a lunatic asylum at all, have contributed not a little to swell the tables of mortality for the year. In the 1st Quarter there were 16 Deaths; 11 males, 5 females. 77 2nd 77 77 77 12 77 5 77 7 77 77 3rd 77 77 77 9 77 3 7 7 6 7 7 77 4th 77 77 77 11 7 7 6 77 5 77 Total 48 25 23 OCCUPATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS. The “ Statistical Tables” appended as usual to the annual Report give the particulars of the various occupations entered upon by the patients during the past year. It is right to state that only those are returned as “Employed” who have been constantly and regularly at work during a month, the less constant workers being classed with the u unemployed.” As a further incentive to occupation, many little extras and indulgences have been granted to patients employed in their various avocations, and this encouragement coming directly from the artisan attendant in charge, creates a personal bond of union between patient and attendant, which is not always severed by discharge. It is unnecessary to specify in detail the different occupations entered upon. A large number as usual were employed at out¬ door work ; and there have been also the artisan staff, black¬ smiths, carpenters, painters, &c., besides the more refined