The eighth annual report of the committee of management of the Caterham Imbecile Asylum for the year 1878.

  • Metropolitan District Asylum at Caterham.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The eighth annual report of the committee of management of the Caterham Imbecile Asylum for the year 1878. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    further develop the ample resources placed at their command for ensuring the good treatment, comfort, and happiness of the large number of afflicted persons placed under their care, as well as the general successful working of the Asylum. Evidence of the satisfactory condition of the Asylum is afforded by the Lunacy Commissioners, who, after a very careful examination of it, which occupied them for two wdiole days in August last, came to the conclusion that “ the orga¬ nisation and management of this large institution is creditable to the officers; ” and this opinion is supported by the obser¬ vations made in the visitors’ book by delegates from various Metropolitan Boards of Guardians. At the close of the Committee’s last Report, viz., on the 30th September, 1877, there remained 1,988 patients in the Asylum; from that time to the corresponding period in this year, 182 admissions, 55 discharges, and 168 deaths have taken place, leaving 1,947 still under treatment. The mor¬ tality on the total number treated was 7*7 per cent., and 8*5 per cent, on the average daily number resident. These rates are much lower than those of previous years, a circumstance which may be attributed to the fact that the aged and feeble cases admitted during the early history of the Asylum have died, and their places taken by healthier and more carefully selected cases. The Medical Superintendent’s Report contains full details of the above-mentioned changes, together with statistics relative to the ages and occupations of the patients received, the length of residence of those who died or were discharged, and a variety of other useful and interesting information. The arrangement made with the South Eastern Railway