General report of the Committee of Visitors of the County of Warwick Pauper Lunatic Asylum : 1856.

  • County of Warwick Pauper Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: General report of the Committee of Visitors of the County of Warwick Pauper Lunatic Asylum : 1856. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    corresponding augmentation of population or of pauperism, must be in some measure attributed to the fact that, prior to the erection of these Institutions, no ready means presented themselves for their proper care; all, that could be possibly taken charge of in the Union-houses, or at their homes, were so provided for; and only those, who were mani¬ festly so dangerous to themselves or others as to be unmanageable under such a supervision, were ever placed in an Asylum; they were mostly scattered over the country, uncared for by any except those on whom the immediate burden of their maintenance fell, and without any facility being afforded for ascertaining their real numbers, or the duration of their lives. Another source of increase of this class, which grows out of the existence of County Asylums, is the number of per¬ sons sent to them of a position rather above the most indigent, whose friends would formerly not have thought of applying to have an insane relative taken charge of by the parish, not knowing where he might be removed to, nor what treatment he might be subjected to; but who, on understanding the nature of the County Asylum—that it is under the supervision of a Committee of County Magistrates, and that it is conducted by officers and servants, who have no personal advantage to gain from their patients, (a consideration of great weight among the poor and the ignorant); and, more especially, that it is within an accessi¬ ble distance from their homes ;—gladly avail themselves of the oppor¬ tunity it affords of relieving themselves of their burdensome charge, though they may be very properly required by their parish to contri¬ bute something towards the cost of maintenance. To these must also certainly be added the fact that the present mode of treatment, as con¬ trasted with that which they formerly had to undergo, conduces ma¬ terially to the prolongation of their lives, and to the consequent accu¬ mulation of their numbers. The mortality among the insane must always be very much above that of the ordinary population, and the average of life in County Asylums, in which no restriction is placed on the nature of the cases admitted, is less than ten years. The period has not long passed away when the average life of the insane poor was probably not more than a third of that period. Up to the present date the discharges have been 105; and the deaths 93 ; and one patient has escaped. Of ihose discharged, 94, viz., 53 males and 43 females, were recovered; 3 males and 6 females