First annual report of the Inverness District Lunatic Asylum : May 1865.

  • Inverness District Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First annual report of the Inverness District Lunatic Asylum : May 1865. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    that it acts detrimentally upon those of low and exhausted organisation, and diminishes the chance of amelioration in the insane, has been demonstrated. All the inmates wear flannels but 2J pair of blankets to each bed is barely sufficient for this climate and season, or for the class of inmates at present under treatment. The personal appearance of the inmates was satis¬ factory ; and the dress, especially of the males, substantial and neat. They are bathed once every week. They are encouraged to attend to neatness and tidiness; but the hair should be more frequently cut, and a much more liberal supply of combs and brushes provided. Greater variety in the colour and form of the clothing, especially in the case of the females, without any change in the fabric, might be resorted to in order to prevent that assimilation to a prison garb which rigid uniformity suggests. Dinner was taken in the presence of the Reporter. One hundred and sixty-three patients were present; and, although strangers were present, partook of their meal with great de¬ corum, and, considering the habits of the class from which they are chiefly drawn, with an adaptation to novel arrangements which speaks favourably of the discipline to which they are subjected. The meal consisted of rice and milk, bread, and cheese, and was comfortably served, although further experience on the part of the servitors will lead to greater order in this respect. The dietary recommended by the Board of Lunacy is in use. A pleasing feature in the classification of the inmates is the appropriation of a division on the female side for the aged, infirm, and helpless. The room appeared somewhat crowded. The same observation applies to the principal wards for the men, where the number of inmates, swelled during the visit by the presence of the labourers, was such as to lead to confusion, and less supervision than what is essential for quiet and order. It is worthy of consideration whether the sick .ward or an in¬ firmary might not be opened in this department on the same principle as that for the females, to which a portion of what must prove, at night and during tempestuous weather, the re¬ dundant population, of the public halls, might be transferred. An additional reason for such a measure is found in the vitiated atmosphere of one or two rooms to which patients are confined who are labouring under chronic ailments. The industrial class amounts to upwards of an hundred and are thus employed :