Fourth annual report of the directors of James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics. 1831.

  • James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics.
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fourth annual report of the directors of James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics. 1831. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    famishing a happy omen of the important bene¬ fits which the Institution will yet confer on the public, by affording relief to a class of our fel¬ low creatures who are now unhappily too nume¬ rous, and who are at once the most unfortunate in the community. When the last Annual Report was publish¬ ed, there were in the Asylum 57 patients.— Since that period 28 have been admitted, while 13 have been dismissed cured, and 8 have been removed by their friends, some of them in a state of convalescence, and one has died. It is almost unnecessary to remark, that this state¬ ment affords a peculiarly favourable view of the success of the Institution, comparing the num¬ ber of cures with the number of admissions, and keeping in view that in many cases the dis¬ ease with the patients had been of long stand¬ ing, and of such a nature as almost to preclude the hope of recovery. The Directors and Physician feel persuaded, from what has fallen under their observation, that it is impossible to say too much of the vast importance of early application in cases of in¬ sanity ; for notwithstanding the most violent symptoms, if the disorder is of recent occurrence, it generally yields to proper treatment, and the recovery of the patient is almost completely se¬ cured. This important truth, which prejudice, ignorance, and false delicacy, are too apt to over-