Medical report of the Royal Lunatic Asylum of Aberdeen, for the year ending 31st December, 1869.

  • Royal Lunatic Asylum of Aberdeen (Aberdeen, Scotland)
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical report of the Royal Lunatic Asylum of Aberdeen, for the year ending 31st December, 1869. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ing from climacteric change, and lastly, decay of mind, from old age. These groups always form marked divisions in the annual admissions of every Asylum, and make up more than a third of the whole number of the new entries for 1869. The pressure for admission of patients as boarders at the lower rates, and of patients belonging to the parishes of the District, was very great, and taxed to the utmost the capacity of the Establishment. The demands made for transference of incurables from the Asylum to the local Poorhouses have for some time back relieved this pressure, and probably may continue to do so for some time to come, as also may, perhaps, the temporary practical operation of a doctrine which has set in as a fashion of late amongst some of those who concern themselves critically in the welfare of the insane, that many of them may be much better out of an Asylum than under such regimen and care, as sensational writers say they sometimes find within them. The Hospital was formally and carefully inspected by the Lunacy Commissioners thrice during the year. Commendation was given to the quality of food sup¬ plied to all classes, the adequacy of the diet, the com¬ fortable and becoming character of the clothing, the cleanliness of the establishment, the tranquility of the patients, and notice taken of the small rate of mortality; while fault was found with the overcrowded state of some parts, and with the consequent disorderly arrange-