The Royal Albert Institution, Lancaster : for the feeble-minded belonging to Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Westmorland, Cumberland, Durham and Northumberland fifty-third annual report.

  • Royal Albert Institution (Lancaster, England)
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Royal Albert Institution, Lancaster : for the feeble-minded belonging to Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Westmorland, Cumberland, Durham and Northumberland fifty-third annual report. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PROSPECTUS. THE ROYAL ALBERT INSTITUTION was established in 1854- for the care, education and training of the improvable Feeble-minded of all classes belonging to the Seven Northern Counties—Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Westmorland, Cumberland, Durham and Northumberland. It was erected and is supported by voluntary contributions, and patients are admitted both free by election and also, WITHOUT ELECTION, AT RATES VARYING FROM 25 TO 200 GUINEAS PER ANNUM. Votes are allotted to subscribers and donors according to the amount contributed, and there are always many election applicants. Special accommodation is reserved for PRIVATE PATIENTS BOTH AT BRUNTON HOUSE AND IN THE MAIN BUILDINGS. Imbecility being generally accompanied by an abnormal or imperfectly developed physical organisation, which retards the growth of the intellectual and moral powers, imbeciles require distinctive treatment in separate Institutions, where the resources of the skilful physician can be best employed for the modification or correction of those defects which obscure the mind. The Commissioners in Lunacy, and the medical pro¬ fession generally, condemn the association of imbeciles with lunatics, as in all respects very objectionable and mutually injurious, and this view is strongly supported by the Report of the recent Royal Commission on the Poor Laws. That much may be done to render the imbecile’s life more tolerable to himself and less burdensome to his friends has been abundantly demonstrated by the success of existing Institutions, experience proving that about “10 per cent, become self- supporting,” while 40 per cent, are “ so far improved as to cease to use up a sane life in their care, and become contributors to the common stock.” The results of specific treatment have been thus described : “ Weak physical powers have been strengthened, uncleanly habits have been cured, the spiteful and irritable have become calm, the dependent self-depending; the idle have been rendered useful, the untutored have learned to read, write, count and draw ; the ability to earn much towards their own livelihood has been acquired by some, while in a few instances the capacity for earning sufficient for a maintenance and laying it out for themselves has been gained ; and the moral and religious feelings have been aroused and fostered, so that excellent characters have been produced, and deeds of simple kindness have been performed by those who were once selfish, sensual and depraved.” Dr. Seguin, the distinguished physician, who may be regarded as the pioneer in this noble work, said, after thirty years’ practical experience in the education and training of imbeciles: “ Not one in a thousand has been entirely refractory to treatment; not one in a hundred has n >t been made more happy and healthy ; more than thirty per cent, have been taught to conform to social and moral law, and rendered capable of order, of good feeling, and of working like the third of a man ; more than 40 per cent, have become capable of the ordinary transactions of life, under friendly control, of understanding moral and social abstractions, of working like two-thirds of a man ; and twenty-five to thirty per cent, come nearer and nearer the standard of manhood, tiil some of them will defy the scru¬ tiny of good judges when compared with ordinary young men and women.” The census returns for 1911 show that in the Seven Associated Counties, with a population numbering 12,093.649, there were 14.673 imbecile or feeble-minded persons, a figure which would be increased to 43,5i2 by the inclusion of the 28 639 returned as insane. The question was thoroughly investigated by the Royal Commission cn the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded, and the following extracts are taken from their Report, published in 1908: “ We have found that, however it be dealt with, the problem of the care and control of the ir.entally-defective assumes a new aspect and larger proportions as it is