Tenth annual report of the Suffolk Lunatic Asylum : December, 1847.

  • Suffolk Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
[1848?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Tenth annual report of the Suffolk Lunatic Asylum : December, 1847. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    On comparing this table with the ages on ad¬ mission, it appears that eight have been received, and eleven have died, being nearly eighty years old. Some few between this and ninety. By such admis¬ sions alone, the mortality must be increased, not so much by numbers, as condition. Indeed, it is fre¬ quently an acknowledged difficulty, how to act for the best advantage with these old persons; and will be so till the proposed abodes for chronic patients are built: still, as after the age of seventy, much of that irregu¬ larity which appears, must depend on what will hardly bear the term preternatural imbecility, they can scarce¬ ly be considered fit inmates of a Hospital for the Insane. There have been as usual several residents of only a few days; and two especially, brought in, suffering from depletion ; and three in a sinking state. The number of suicidal admissions has also been unusually large. The escaped patient was a county vagrant, a convalescent Yorkshireman, on the point of being brought up for discharge. We have heard of his safe arrival at home, and of his restoration to mental sanity: so that he may be considered as cured. We have had amongst our discharges, a very interesting case of a female, whose life had been for nearly seven¬ teen years, more or less, spent within these walls; she became a patient in 1830, when from sudden reverses, and family trials, she was brought in, suffering from acute mania. After being under treatment a few