Twenty-ninth annual report of the directors of the Dundee Royal Asylum for Lunatics : submitted, in terms of their charter, to a general meeting of the directors, 18th June, 1849 with the report of the medical officers.

  • Dundee Royal Asylum for Lunatics.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Twenty-ninth annual report of the directors of the Dundee Royal Asylum for Lunatics : submitted, in terms of their charter, to a general meeting of the directors, 18th June, 1849 with the report of the medical officers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    allude to those chronic cases, without adverting to one fact con¬ nected with them ; and it is one which they feel cannot be too strongly impressed on the public mind, viz., that in the great ma¬ jority of instances the evil so much to be deplored resolves itself into one or other of the following causes. First, That the friends or curators of the patient neglected to remove them in the earlier stages of the malady from all its excit¬ ing causes, and to place them at once under the most favourable circumstances for arresting its further development; or Secondly, That they injudiciously withdrew them from a cura¬ tive course of treatment before sufficient evidence had been exhi¬ bited of even a probable recovery. In either case it is easy to see that the chances of recovery are, humanly speaking, seriously di¬ minished. In the former case, the impediments in the way of restoration become too great for medical skill to contend against; - and, in the latter, there is a moral certainty that the patients shall return into the Asylum with less reasonable prospect of recovery than when thev first entered within its walls. The Directors take leave to say, when these suggestions are more fully appreciated by the public, and acted on by the guardians of the insane, a very de¬ cided increase in the proportion both of speedy and permanent ► cures may be confidently anticipated.* The Directors have much pleasure in referring to various im¬ provements which have been carried into effect during the year, j and which contribute greatly both to the welfare of the patients I and prosperity of the institution. An agreement has been entered i into with the Water Company for supplying the establishment * An eminent writer on Insanity (Burrows) reports from his own experience a pro¬ portion of 91 per cent, of recoveries in recent cases. This is an unusually high rate, but the testimony of all authors on the subject goes to establish the fact, that the num- ! her of cures likely to be effected is nearly proportional to the duration of the malady prior to its treatment. It has been observed, that those who recover from insanity i'j generally do so within the first twelvemonths, and in some Asylums (Bethlem and St Luke’s) all patients who have suffered beyond this period are excluded as being | utterly incurable. This is perhaps taking an extreme view of their case, but it ob- i viously shows the fallacy of the prevalent opinion, “ that there is no harm in keeping t lunatics at home so long as they are not dangerous.”