Thirty-third annual report of the resident physician of the Belfast District Hospital for the Insane Poor of the counties of Antrim and Down, and the county of the town of Carrickfergus : from 1st April, 1862, to the 31st March, 1863.

  • Belfast District Hospital for the Insane.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thirty-third annual report of the resident physician of the Belfast District Hospital for the Insane Poor of the counties of Antrim and Down, and the county of the town of Carrickfergus : from 1st April, 1862, to the 31st March, 1863. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    SUICIDAL AND HOMICIDAL CASES ADMITTED DURING THE YEAR. Twenty-one of the former class (six males and fifteen females) and eleven of the latter (six males and five females) had these propensities, respectively, more or less strongly developed prior to their coming under treatment, in connexion with their insanity, and required, accordingly, the most unremitting supervision, in all their movements, to guard themselves and others against any evil consequences arising therefrom, and which happily did not occur. Of the suicidal males, one each attempted his life by poison, strangulation, cutting the throat, and hanging, respectively, and two by drowning. Of the fifteen females, of the same class, six threatened to drown themselves, five attempted destruction by precipitation from windows, and four by strangulation. PRESENT STATE OF ACCOMMODATION. The year now terminated was, every day thereof, one of much embarrassment in endeavouring to meet the continued and urgent demands for the admission of cases more or less acute in their nature, and desirable, if by any means, to take under treat¬ ment without delay ; it was, however, impossible to accommo¬ date all, but the more pressing applications received the benefits of the House, even at the risk of adding to the innumerable in- conveniencies necessarily arising from its already over-crowded wards. The entire admissions for the year were not nearly so many as the preceding, being as 82 to 119, the total number taken under treatment in 1861-2. But the average daily number on the books this year has been greater than last, being three hundred and sixty-two against three hundred and fifty- nine the year previous. The stated accommodation of the House is but three hundred and thirty, thus shewing an excess of thirty-two above what should legitimately have been on the books. The number of outstanding cases in ordinary at the present date is fourteen, which is altogether independent of those in the jails of the district, committed as “ dangerous lunatics,” which may be set down as about thirty, the major portion of whom is in County Down Jail.