Report of the directors of the Montrose Lunatic Asylum, infirmary and dispensary (instituted 1782) for the year ending 1st June, 1850.

  • Royal Lunatic Asylum, Infirmary, and Dispensary of Montrose.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the directors of the Montrose Lunatic Asylum, infirmary and dispensary (instituted 1782) for the year ending 1st June, 1850. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The whole number of patients affected, from first to last, with disorders of the bowels amounted to twenty-seven—a large number indeed, when it is considered that the average number of females in the house during the past year has amounted to but 71 in all. Of these 27 cases, 6 proved fatal : 3 in the course of a very few hours after the attack, 1 in about thirty-six hours, and another at the end of two days, more, in fact, from the shock her system sustained than from the malignant nature of the attack, she being upwards of 86 years’ old at the time of her death. The sixth fatal case, after the first violence of the attack had been subdued, lingered for some weeks, although in a very enfeebled state, so that strong hopes were entertained of her ultimate recovery ; a relapse, however, of the disease, in all its former intensity, cut her off in the course of a few hours. Of the Patients who died, 3 had previously been much re¬ duced, either by old age, or by long-continued ill health; whilst the 3 remaining ones, up to the time of the attack, appeared to be in the enjoyment of their usual health. The general treatment pursued, consisted in the repeated ad¬ ministration of full sedative doses of calomel, with occasional doses of opium, general diffusible stimuli, together with the ap¬ plication of synapisms to the epigastrium, &c. In the milder forms of the disease, and in every case where the slightest ten¬ dency to purging existed, the Compound Chalk Mixture, recom¬ mended by the Metropolitan Board of Health, was most promptly and extensively administered, and with marked benefit. During the past year I have been most ably and cordially assisted in the general management of the house, both hy Mrs. Wright and Mr. Niddrie, and also by the servants under their control. To the individual members of the House Committee I would beg to offer my sincere thanks, for the uniform countenance and co-operation I have received at their hands. I have the honor to be, My Loud and Gentlemen, Your most obedient Servant, T. C. MORISON, Medical Superintendent, Montrose, June 13, 1850.