The second annual report of the Committee of Visitors, of the County Lunatic Asylum, at Colney Hatch : January quarter session, 1853 / [Middlesex County Lunatic Asylum].

  • London (England). County Lunatic Asylum, Colney Hatch.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The second annual report of the Committee of Visitors, of the County Lunatic Asylum, at Colney Hatch : January quarter session, 1853 / [Middlesex County Lunatic Asylum]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    4/106 (page 4)
    Happily the enlightened system long pursued at the County Asylum at Hanwell has obtained such general ap¬ proval, that your Committee are relieved from the task of dwelling upon its benefits. To the Visiting Justices of this Asylum is assigned the more agreeable office of recording the success which has attended the non-restraint system. In no single instance has recourse been had to mechanical restraint, whilst numerous instances might be adduced in confirmation of the happy results of milder treatment. The Visiting Justices have much pleasure in stating, that they have been ably seconded by all their Officers, who have evinced a constant desire to perform their duties with the utmost consideration for the afflicted objects of their care. The Report presented to the Court in January last stated the number of Patients to be 383 Males and 621 Females. Your Committee, finding that there were many of the Lunatic poor remaining in private houses, proceeded to make arrange¬ ments for the reception of an additional number, and there are now 515 Males and 729 Females in the Asylum. The total number admitted during the year has been 354 Males and 270 Females, of whom 42 Males and 26 Females have been discharged cured, 24 Males and 17 Females have been removed by Parishes or Friends, 53 Males and 22 Females have died, and 235 Males and 205 Females remain in the Asylum. Most of those discharged cured were recent cases, and they left the Asylum within six months from their admission. The great majority of the inmates being chronic cases, the number of those who are expected to recover is but small. The total number of deaths during the year have amounted to 119 Males and 70 Females out of the whole number of Patients; but when it is stated that 68 did not