Report of the medical officers of the Lunatic Asylum for the County of Lancaster : instituted 28th July 1816 1844.

  • Lancaster County Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the medical officers of the Lunatic Asylum for the County of Lancaster : instituted 28th July 1816 1844. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tributing to the general air of comfort and cheerfulness in every department of the institution. The general tranquillity of the institution on Sundays has been most materially promoted, by encouraging the habit of reading and singing in the different wards, as mentioned in last year’s report. Few arrangements have been attended with happier results than this; and it is truly delightful to witness the calm, and it may even be said, the devotional feeling that seems to pervade the whole establishment on that sacred day. The system of moral management and control, in contradistinction to mechanical restraint and coercion, is strictly adhered to, and since first adopted, it has only once been found necessary to depart from it, and that in the case of a very violent and uncontrollable epileptic patient, who had got an impression that the Medical Officers durst not have recourse to any coercive measures, such as were formerly in constant use, no matter how outrageous his conduct. This patient was placed under restraint for six hours, with the best effects as regarded himself, and with great advantage to several parties in his gallery, who had, through his instru¬ mentality, shewn symptoms of great insubordination. It was with some reluctance that such a measure was had recourse to, and it was not adopted until all ordinary pallia¬ tive means had failed in producing the desired effect. The advantages of having a resident House Surgeon have now been fully developed, and the Medical Officers are enabled to speak with confidence of the value of the appoint¬ ment. They are thus in a position to make arrangements that the institution shall never be left without medical super¬ vision, and to carry out the general details of the establish¬ ment more fully and more satisfactorily than could otherwise be accomplished. The cases of incidental disease occurring during the year