Nineteenth annual report of the trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester. December, 1851.

  • State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nineteenth annual report of the trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester. December, 1851. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT , OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE STATE LUNATIC HOSPITAL. December, is51, To His Excellency the Governor and the Honorable Council: The Trustees of the Massachusetts State Lunatic Hospital, in com¬ pliance with that injunction of official duty which requires an “Annual Report of the Condition of the Hospital and its Concerns,” have the honor to submit the following communication • This humane and eminently beneficent Institution has now been in operation for nearly the fifth part of a century, The same philan* thropic spirit which prompted the Government of the Commonwealth to its establishment, has been constantly since manifested in liberal appropriations for its improvement, and in the increase of well devised means for its usefulness. Private benevolence, also, has not unfre- quently been exercised in fostering its interests, and greatly extending the sphere of its influence. Eminently skilful and experienced pro¬ fessional men, from the first, have been engaged in its management, and whatever of relief, or comfort, or solace, could be made to result from sympathizing care or a tender sensibility, has, at all times, been freely administered to “ the mind diseased,” to soothe the violence of the frantic, and assuage the melancholy of the desponding of its un- happy patients. Over all, the blessing of a gracious Providence has been continually and most signally vouchsafed to its uninterrupted prosperity. A recurrence to the annual Reports of the preceding eighteen years, will serve to show with what degree of satisfaction we should now regard the counsels and labors of those devoted public servants, who, in times past, have had the more immediate conduct of this noble endowment of charity, and how great the obligation to gratitude and thanksgiving for that Divine Beneficence, which has