Twenty-first annual report of the directors of the Dundee Royal Asylum for Lunatics : submitted in terms of their charter to a general meeting of directors, July 5, 1841.

  • Dundee Royal Asylum for Lunatics.
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Twenty-first annual report of the directors of the Dundee Royal Asylum for Lunatics : submitted in terms of their charter to a general meeting of directors, July 5, 1841. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    all this time was taciturn and considered harmless. When the Crown Counsel came from Edinburgh to examine him, to the astonishment of all present, he recovered his speech, and acknowledged that he thought hia victim was labouring under great pain, and that he committed the action for the sake of relieving him fromi his distress. He fancies himself to be a person of high rank and importance in the state, and that he has a great part of the heavenly bodies intrusted to his care. He is particularly happy. The cause of this man's insanity was the circumstance of a loaded pistol having been fired close to his head without his knowledge. On the whole, this class of patients is easily managed. We shall not take up your time with any remarks on the dififerent causes of insanity in the patients admitted last year, but shall refer you for particulars o the list of causes. We may observe, that there has been a considerable crease of patients whose disease has been attributed to hereditary predis- osition, and a decrease of patients from drunkenness, debauchery, and similar causes. We had lately a brother and a sister in the Asylum, and at present we have two males out of one, and four females out of two families. Since our last report Mrs Hunter resigned her situation as Matron, and Mrs Kilgour was appointed in her place; the former left the Asylum on the 8th of August, and the latter arrived on the 14th September. Our duties give us constant opportunities of judging of the fitness of the Matron for her situation. We cannot, therefore, in justice to Mrs Kilgour, omit the first opportunity that occurs, of stating to the Directors, that she is a lady in every respect eminently quaUfied for her difficult situation, and that she performs its various duties to our entire satisfaction. She has won the affections of all entrusted to her care, by the universal kindness with which she attends to all their wants, by a kindness which shows that she is actuated by higher motives than the bare performance of duty. As a very great deal of the usefulness of such Institutions as ours depends on the manner in which the important duties of Matron are performed, and on the zeal and alacrity with which she carries into effect the suggestions of the medical officers, it gives us great pleasure to be able to assure the Directors that their choice of Mrs Kilgour has in all respects been a most fortunate one for the Asylum.