Report of the Committee of Visitors of the Lunatic Asylum for the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire : presented at the Epiphany quarter sessions for the respective ridings, 1855 together with the superintendent's eighth annual report, read at the Easter sessions, 1855 and an account of the receipts and payments to the end of the year, 1854 / North and East Ridings of Yorkshire Lunatic Asylum.

  • North and East Ridings of Yorkshire Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Committee of Visitors of the Lunatic Asylum for the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire : presented at the Epiphany quarter sessions for the respective ridings, 1855 together with the superintendent's eighth annual report, read at the Easter sessions, 1855 and an account of the receipts and payments to the end of the year, 1854 / North and East Ridings of Yorkshire Lunatic Asylum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    infancy or childhood became the prey to withering distempers, accidental blows, culpable neglect or languishing cold and want. The benign influence exercised by the able bodied and intelli¬ gent, upon their more pitiable associates, is not confined to the important offices above enumerated, but is perpetually in effective operation out of doors, in teaching them various sorts of work; for which, if they were alone dependent on paid servants, must either be conferred in a limited manner, or the selection of the servants need be from a class possessing the rare qualifications of forethought, skill for teaching, and tact to command. It is also obvious they must be many in number, expensive to hire and difficult to retain in the performance of tasks so irksome and depressing to really faithful and conscientious persons. The indiscriminate mingling of Idiots with Lunatics is by far the most rational and promising way for stealthily imbuing the vacant mind with practical informa¬ tion of some kind or another, as is evidenced here in the Laundry, Kitchen, Wards, and in the common occupations of sewing, knitting, household work, &c. Under favouring circumstances, such as now described, the fidelity and trustworthiness of the imbecile, when once established, is of the most encouraging charac¬ ter, and affords very ample and grateful rewards for the zeal and judicious friendship devoted to this interesting but deeply suffering class of the Insane. There were in the Asylum on the 1st January, 1854: — Ridings’ Patients . . ... Males. 137 Females. 129 Out County Patients .... 11 18 148 147 Ridings’ Patients admitted during 1854 36 42 Total under treatment in 1854 184 189 Males. Females. Discharged recovered 9 9 Much relieved ... 4 5 Removed not chargeable to the Ridings but elsewhere . . 9 13 Died.10 11 38 Remaining 31st Dec., 1854 . . . 152 151 Of the number under treatment a fraction over 5J per cent, have died in the past year. The Asylum was first opened on the 7th April, 1847, since which 352 Males and 337 Females, total 689 Lunatic Patients, have been admitted: of whom 80 Males and 49 Females have