On the construction and management of hospitals for the insane : with a particular notice of the institution at Sieburg / by Maximilian Jacobi ; translated by John Kitching ; with introductory observations, &c. by Samuel Tuke.

Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the construction and management of hospitals for the insane : with a particular notice of the institution at Sieburg / by Maximilian Jacobi ; translated by John Kitching ; with introductory observations, &c. by Samuel Tuke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    384/396 (page 298)
    ■298 Dr. Jacobi, at the foot of his first table, deduces from it the following statement, in regard to the average of cures and deaths in the Siegburg establishment. The proportion of recoveries calculated upon the total admissions; that is in classes 1, 2, and 3.... 28 : 100 The proportion of the whole number of recoveries, to the number of admissions in classes 2 and 3 40 : 100 The proportion of the whole number of re- coveries, to the number of admission in class 3. 58 : 100*- The proportion of deaths, to the total number of admissions in all the classes 12^:100 The proportion of deaths, to the admissions in classes 2 and 3 9 : 100 The proportion of deaths, to the admissions in class 3 6 : lOOf * It would have been satisfactory to have known whether any, and how many of the cured were of the second class;—the proportion here given is that of the whole number discharged as cured, to the number of admissions in the third class alone. f The reader will observe, that this statement does not give the proportion of deaths out of the average number of patients in the establishment during the period included in the table, which is the more usual, and I must think the more useful inference to be drawn from the experience of asylums, in regard to the mortality of the insane. To make any fair comparison of this statement with the results of any other establishment, the time in which the patients remain in the respective houses, is an essential ingredient. Those institutions which dis- charge a large number of incui'able patients to be placed in a safety house, as is the case with that at Siegburg, are in quite a different position to those which retain all who are not fit for full liberty. It may, however, be presumed that the number of patients stated to be remaining in the institution, at the end of each year, will represent pretty nearly the average number during the year; and assuming this to be the case, we find the total average number resident in the house during the fifteen years, included in the preceding table, to be one hun- dred and forty-five. The deaths which occurred during this period were one hundred and sixty one, so that the average annual mortality would be nearly seven and a half per cent.