Report of the directors of the Montrose Royal Lunatic Asylum, infirmary and dispensary for the year ending 1st June, 1853.

  • Royal Lunatic Asylum, Infirmary, and Dispensary of Montrose.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the directors of the Montrose Royal Lunatic Asylum, infirmary and dispensary for the year ending 1st June, 1853. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    As I have frequently stated, in former reports, the judi¬ cious occupation of the patients at various employments, is one of the objects in the curative treatment prominently kept in view at this Asylum. To draw the insane out of themselves—to en¬ gage their attention, and to induce them to follow any useful occupation, even in the most trifling degree is, however, in many cases, attended with difficulties, of which persons unac¬ quainted with the subject, can form little idea. The advantage to be derived is, nevertheless, so obvious, even to the patient himself, that when once an interest has been excited, he will voluntarily engage in the accustomed labour, as a means of re¬ lieving his mind from the troubles which oppress him. In com¬ mon maniacal cases, instead of the nervous excitement expend¬ ing itself in the indulgence of mischievous propensities, in quar¬ relling or in vociferation, it is carried off in useful labour. In the case of the melancholic, the relief afforded renders him quite a different being, and, instead of brooding over his imaginary crimes, or real miseries, he is comparatively cheerful and happy. Let the system of employment in Asylums be discontinued, and they would speedily become mere prisons for the custody of the insane—scenes of dullness and listlessness on the one hand, and of numerous accidents and confusion on the other, entailing an increase of the expenses, and an additional number of attendants, or a return to the exploded practices of coercion and bodily re¬ straint. During the past year, I have been most cordially and ably assisted, in the general management of the House, by Mrs Wright and Mr Niddrie, and also by the servants under their charge. To the individual Members of the House Committee of the Asylum, 1 beg to offer my thanks for the countenance and support I have received at their hands; and, I have the honor to be, Gentlemen, Your most obedient Servant, T. C. MORISON, M edical Superintendent, Montrose, June 14th, 1853,