The annual report of the Dorset County Lunatic Asylums, Charminster and Forston, for the year 1881.

  • Dorset County Lunatic Asylum (Charminster, England)
Date:
[1882]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The annual report of the Dorset County Lunatic Asylums, Charminster and Forston, for the year 1881. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    8/46 (page 8)
    of such, what we may almost call preventable, deaths is now somewhat less likely than it might have been, had not the better night supervision now introduced been arranged. On each side, there are now at Charminster (where are detained 23 male and 25 females epileptics) special dormitories with single rooms for that class of the insane. The arrangements cannot be described as perfect, but there are structural defects in the Asylum, which have to be taken into account in regard to continuous night supervision of any large number of patients. For the night accommodation of those suffering from fits, two floors communicating by a short staircase, are now set apart. On these floors (two on each side of the Asylum) are dormitories and single rooms, and they are patrolled through the night by a special attendant in each division, and near to them sits the general night attendant of the division, when not on his or her round of duty. The rooms are not lighted, as in other Asylums is the rule, but the attendant carries a lantern. Dr. Symes considers that this practice is better than lighting the rooms. There are also no tell-tale clocks in these dormitories. We do not consider these arrangements to be satisfactory, as they fail to provide for continuous night supervision. Something has indeed been done in that direction, but certainly not all that is possible. At Forston there has been much, and at Charminster some renovation of paint and papering in the Wards, and in both Asylums proper attention is given to cleanliness, ventilation, and comfort. Several single rooms and a gallery at Forston appears to have been improved since last visit by the substitution of boarded floor for tiles, and at Forston there is now a manual Fire Engine, and we understand, a drill of the Fire Brigade. The lighting by oil instead of by gas continues there. The Head Attendant at Forston is leaving, we are told that he has served 33 years and that he will have a pension of £45 per annum. The staff of attendants, male and female, is full, and having regard to the quiet character of the majority of the patients, it is perhaps numerically sufficient. The dietary is unaltered, and the complaints about food were few. We saw a very substantial dinner on table, hashed