Report on lunatic asylums / by Fredc. Norton Manning.

  • Manning, Frederick Norton, 1839-1903.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on lunatic asylums / by Fredc. Norton Manning. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    16/344 (page 8)
    These—numbering 33 per cent, of the whole number of pauper in:4ane in the country— all belonged to the so-called harmless and manageable class, and had been placed, or allowed to remain in private dwellings, under the sanction of the Board of Lunacy ; those among them who were not boarded with relatives having been placed with their guardians under a warrant from the JShcriff. The Lunacy Board is invested by law with the all but complete control of the pauper lunatics of the country; it tan withhold or withdraw its sanction to their residence in private dwellings, and take whatever steps may be necessary for the removal of ]iatients to asylums. It is directly responsible for their proper keeping, and accordingly their condition is personally examined and inquired into with as great regularity as possible; and, in addition to this. Parochial Surgeons are required to visit them at stated times, and the Inspectors of the Poor to make annual and other returns regarding them.* Erom January, 1858, to the end of 1862, 4,922 visits were paid to the dwelliugi? of these patients, and a separate report on each patient was forwarded to the Board. The object of these visits is stated, in the Second Annual Report of tlie Board of Lunacy for Scotland, to be— First, to procure the removal to asylums of such patients as there were reasonable grounds for thinking were still capable of being restored to sanity, or, at all events, of being improved in mental healtli, under asylum treatment; secondly, the removal of those who, from the nature of their malady, or from the circumstances in which they are placed, there was reasoii to fear might prove dangerous to themselves or others; and lastly, the removal of those who, from their mental and bodily ailments, could not be properly cared for at home. Another equally important object was, as far as possible, to insure the proper treatment of those patients wliose removal to asyluni.s was dispensed with. In short, as Dr. Mitchellf observes, *' The object of these visits was to secure that removal had not been dispensed with in cases which were not suitable for manage- ment in private dwellings, and that a reasonable provision existed for the safe and comfortable keeping of those who were ; and, excepting always those cases in whicli bodily infirmities and peculiarities of mental disease make extra comforts necessary, it has been thought satisfactory wheu these patients are found to be treated in all respects like the sane ])Oor ai'ound about them, and among and with whom they live. In the vast majority of cases, it is enough if the patient is really treated as a member of the family in which he lives—if he is not lialf-naked and in rags, whilst they are warmly and sufficiently clothed—if he does not sleep in an out-house, or on the bare floor, wliile they have comfortable beds—if hi.s meat is not thrown to him as if he were a dog, while theirs is decently served—if he is not unwaslied and filthj^ while they are clean ; and so on, in other respects. Lender this system of visitation, carried out with great zeal by the Board of Lunacy, the condition of the insane in private dwellings has immensely improved, and at this time compares favourably, as far as their comfort and happiness are concerned, with that of the insane in the Poor Houses of Scotland—the wards of which are, as a rule, in their arrangements for the well-being of the patients, much in advance of those in England. The mortality is also less. Dr. Mitchell gives the following table :—X Mortality—Percentage on Annual Number Resident. Patients in Lunatic Pauper Patients in Wards of Poor Houio.h Private Dwellings. licensed for Chronic Cases onlv. 1858 5-4 9-4 1859 4-0 9-5 1860 5-0 101 1861 4-5 131 and the cost is thus stated by the same authority :— The Average Daily Rate of Maintenance, over 5 Tears, has been— The Public and Private Asylums £0 1 3v In Lunatic Wards of Poor Houses 0 0 ll\ In Private Dwellings 0 0 SI* t Op. at., p. 32.