Reports of the County Lunatic Asylum at Prestwich : presented to the Court of Adjourned Annual Session holden at Preston, 31st December, 1879, with the accounts of the receipts and payments of the respective treasurers of the said asylums.

  • Lancaster County Lunatic Asylum at Prestwich.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reports of the County Lunatic Asylum at Prestwich : presented to the Court of Adjourned Annual Session holden at Preston, 31st December, 1879, with the accounts of the receipts and payments of the respective treasurers of the said asylums. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    On tliis day there are 514 males and 668 females on the books of the establishment. The Asylum has been greatly crowded during the entire year. Patients could only be admitted as vacancies occurred by discharges or deaths, and, on this account, the admissions have been fewer than they were during several years past. For the last five or six years the deaths were below the average number, which fact, while speaking well for the sanitary arrangements of the Institution, explains the steady augmen¬ tation in the number of Patients under care and treatment. Plans for affording increased accommodation by means of an Annexe to the Asylum, in accordance with the recommend¬ ations of the Special Committee on Lunacy accommodation, were submitted to the Commissioners in Lunacy in April last. After much delay and correspondence the Plans were approved by the Secretary of State, and, at the Annual General Session held in September, they received the sanction of the Court, and a sum of money, not exceeding £95,000, was granted for carrying out the necessary works. The Annexe is intended for the reception of about 800 Chronic Patients, chiefly of the Epileptic class, for whom suitable accommodation has long been required in this Division of the County. Taking into consider¬ ation the special character of the provision required by this unfortunate class of the chronic insane, the estimated cost of the accommodation which will be afforded by the proposed Annexe contrasts favourably with the cost of similar extensions to Asylums in other Counties in England. The levelling of the site was commenced in May last, and, in September, your Committee entered into a contract with Messrs. Neill and Sons, of Manchester, for the erection of the buildings. To meet the views of the Commissioners in Lunacy, with regard to the acquisition of additional land, your Committee