Twenty-first annual report of the directors of the Dundee Royal Asylum for Lunatics : submitted in terms of their charter to a general meeting of directors, July 5, 1841.

  • Dundee Royal Asylum for Lunatics.
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Twenty-first annual report of the directors of the Dundee Royal Asylum for Lunatics : submitted in terms of their charter to a general meeting of directors, July 5, 1841. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS OF THE Dundee Atonal Egg l tun for 3Lttnatirs, For the Year ending 15th June, 1841, The Directors of the Dundee Royal Lunatic Asylum for 1840 have to apologise to their constituents for the delay that has arisen in the publi¬ cation of the Report for the year of their management. This has been caused by unforeseen circumstances not worth mentioning; nor would they have alluded to them at all, but that the Directors were apprehensive that if they did not do so, they might be supposed to disapprove of, or at any rate to treat with indifference, the regulation* that provides for the publi¬ cation of every Annual Report at a specified time. The regulation is a good one, and departure from it never should be allowed but in unavoidable i cases; because, if adherence to a fixed time be not enforced, there is no say¬ ing to what length delay may extend, and twelvemonths may be suffered |t0 Pass over without a Board of Direction furnishing any account of their i proceedings whatever. This may' seem to some a matter of no great - moment, for it may be said, and said truly, that in the occurrences con- i nected with the management of a Lunatic Asylum, one year in a very great degree telleth another; and that there can be but little interest excited in favour of the Institution by a tale that has been so frequently , told. But to create a favourable impression in the minds of the public by I a narrative of touching and striking incidents which not unfrequently occur in the development of that strange disease, for the concealment and alle¬ viation of which an Asylum presents a desirable retreat, is not, and ought not to be, the principal end aimed at in the putting forth of an account of .the transactions of every year. The chief use of such an account is to I show and convince the public that every thing that can be done for the * Second of the Bye-Laws.