The eleventh annual report of the committee of visitors of the County Lunatic Asylum at Colney Hatch : January quarter session, 1862 / [Middlesex County Lunatic Asylum].

  • London (England). County Lunatic Asylum, Colney Hatch.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The eleventh annual report of the committee of visitors of the County Lunatic Asylum at Colney Hatch : January quarter session, 1862 / [Middlesex County Lunatic Asylum]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The existence of such an abuse for so long a period, known as it was to the Inspectors and Head Attendants, appears strongly to illustrate the need for more complete supervision on the part of the Medical Officers, and to suggest the expediency of limiting the duties of an adequate number of Assistant Medical Officers to distinct departments. The Ward referred to was that in which (unobserved by the Attendants) one of the Patients was recently strangled by another. Upon the subject of Diet, and the quality of the Meat and other provisions, we have to state, that during our progress through the Asylum many complaints were made to us. We saw the Patients at dinner on two several days, and much of the beef appeared to us to be coarse and hard, on tasting it the first day, though it was better on the second. Upon statements being repeated to us, however, that generally the Meat was of inferior quality, frequently hard, without fat, and tasteless, we made sufficient inquiry to satisfy ourselves of the urgent necessity for a special investigation into these complaints on the part of the Committee ; and we would suggest to them to examine, amongst other persons, the Housekeeper on the Female side, who seems to have had much experience, and who, besides supplying all the extra diet on that side, and providing for the Assistant Medical Officers of both Divisions, is responsible for the cooking and distribution of the food of nearly all the Female Patients. On the subject of quantity, we repeat a suggestion formerly made, and which we think to be essential under the present system, that the amount of the Meat allowed should be calculated upon its weight after being cooked, and without bone, and not, as now, when raw.