Thirty-eighth annual report of the Suffolk Lunatic Asylum : December, 1875.

  • Suffolk Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
[1876]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thirty-eighth annual report of the Suffolk Lunatic Asylum : December, 1875. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    must take place of officials must be very objectionable, and injurious to the inmates, and in some instances they have been commented on bv the Commissioners. The Suffolk Asylum has not grown up into unmanageable magnitude : and throughout the whole period of your Super¬ intendent’s senior life, it has retained its domestic character and its individuality. The changes of attendants have been very few indeed. Some of the best female attendants have left to be married: we would gladly have retained their services, but it was no use to forbid the banns, the “irresis¬ tible impulse ” was too powerful. Some of them live in the village, and they still take an interest in all the affairs of the House. The late House Steward has been super¬ annuated, after twenty-five years of faithful service, five years beyond the statutory period allowed for retirement. There has been a great deal of work done, and the Patients have as hitherto been profitably employed throughout the year. By working the new boiler in the new engine house, a saving has been exactly calculated of sixty tons of coals a year. By the new steam boiler in the cookery there has been a saving of half-a-ton of coals a week, or about twenty-five tons a year. New posts and rails, iron and wire, have been put up in the drying ground, increasing the length of ac¬ commodation for the linen by 150 yards. The tramway has been lengthened to the extent of forty yards : this was very heavy work for the men, but they did it cheerfully and well. The pig-yards have been fresh drained and paved. Two out-cloor water-closets have been made, a new cart- lodge with potatoe house, and other alterations and improve¬ ments, which the patients themselves have been well able to execute. Every yearly close gives us a longer retrospect, and a shorter future for all work. Looking back down the longer vista, we cannot help seeing the relative importance of some efforts and events compared with others. Some seemed