Twenty-fifth annual report of the directors of James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics near Perth. June 1852.

  • James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Twenty-fifth annual report of the directors of James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics near Perth. June 1852. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the period in question, fifteen patients have been cured and restored to their friends and society, while ten have been removed more or less benefitted. The time has now passed when it was necessary for¬ mally to maintain the advantages which society derives from the establishment of asylums for the insane. These institutions are now all but universally regarded as being quite as essential to the public welfare as hospitals for the sick, or any of the other institutions intended to pro¬ mote the moral or physical wellbeing of mankind. While this is the case, however, it is not to be supposed that the treatment of insanity is incapable of improvement. The complicated and varied character of the disorder, and the comparatively recent period since the subject has gained the earnest attention of the medical profession, warrant the supposition that important improvements are to be expected, from time to time, as the result of the sober experience of those who make insanity their study. Acting on this conviction, the Directors and Medical Gen¬ tlemen in the charge of this Institution, while they would be slow to adopt too rashly untried experiments, are de¬ lighted to secure for this Asylum all the advantages which scientific discovery or enlightened experience may have suo’o;ested as curative and beneficial. This has been tlieir policy in the past, and it will be so for the future. When acting on these principles, the Directors are as¬ sured that the results of treatment in the Institution will continue, as heretofore, to be cheering and satisfactory. They have the gratification of knowing, that, from time to time, members of the community who, from the dispen¬ sations of Providence, have been sent to the Asylum, have, after a short residence, been restored to ordinary health,