The eleventh annual report of the North Wales Counties Lunatic Asylum, Denbigh : for the year 1859.

  • North Wales Counties Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The eleventh annual report of the North Wales Counties Lunatic Asylum, Denbigh : for the year 1859. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    admission. He had been confined to his bed for that period. He was extremely feeble, semi-comatose, and obliged to be fed. He only survived his admission a few days, when death put an end to his sufferings. Upon examination, after death, the temporal, parietal and frontal bones were found fractured, and pressing on the brain, and with partial union of the scalp. The constant irritation of the fractured bones had produced an abscess, the size of a pigeon’s egg, which had burst and discharged itself into the substance of the brain. It is to be regretted, that this poor man had not been sent to some Surgical Hospital immediately after the accident, or some attempt made to remove the fractured portion of bone before the fatal pressure on the brain had produced such irreparable consequences. Of 99 admitted, 27 were discharged cured, and 12 only remain in the house with any prospect of recovery; 11 have died, 6 of whom were in a most feeble condition, and upwards of 70 years of age. We venture to express a hope, that in the projected Amended Lunacy Bill some discretion will be left to the Superintendents of Asylums respecting the admission of patients. At present, the Resident Medical Officer has no discretion, and is compelled to admit pauper patients, however unfit for an Asylum, if they are brought in with certificates from qualified practitioners, &c. We have no change to notice as to the medical and moral treatment of the patients, or of their employments and occupations. We endeavour to impress upon the attendants, male and female, the observance of that “ Law of kindness ” which has always been the paramount rule and practice of the establishment, and any deviation from it is severely reprobated, and dismissal follows as the con¬ sequence of a repetition of such an offence. The Christmas Party, or the Ball, as it is generally termed, was a very gratifying spectacle, and attended by a larger number of patients than usual, in consequence of the freedom from illness or undue excitement amongst the inmates. Amongst the visitors was the Honorable Mrs. Rowley, a lady who has, from the openiug of the house, evinced a warm interest in its welfare, and who has, on several occasions, soothed many desolate hearts by the loan and gift of