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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    In reviewing the fatal cases, it ought to he remarked, that four were moribund on admission, and had the rules of the house been strictly adhered to, they would have been sent out as unfit patients; but of course they were allowed to remain, as such a course would only have hastened dissolution. The average duration of each patient’s residence in the House was 26 days. On referring to the first of these Tables, it will be seen, that the number of admissions is considerably less than last year. This is mainly owing to the fact that, with the exception of Cholera, no disease of an epidemic character has existed in the town or neighbourhood during the last twelvemonths ; not a single case of epidemic fever, scarlet fever, measles, small pox, or erysipelas having been admitted into any of the Wards during that period. The fifteen cases of fever were of the mildest possible type, and from no particular locality. Only one case proved fatal, and in this case, the fatal issue was caused by exposure of the patient (a stranger) before his admission. Although no case of erysipelas was admitted into the House, yet a few of the patients affected with ulcers and wounds were attacked with this disease in a mild and manageable form, during the progress of treatment for the original ailment. During the prevalence of Cholera, the Wards set apart for fever patients being happily without a single occupant, were isolated from the other parts of the House, and placed at the disposal of the Parochial Board, for the use of patients labour¬ ing under this disease. One female patient admitted from Ferryden, on the 7th Nov., labouring under a slight attack of fever, was seized on .the following day with Cholera, in its severest form. She was removed to the Cholera Ward, where she recovered. Chloroform was administered in every case where the patient was subjected to suffering more than ordinarily severe, invari¬ ably with the most perfect success, and in no single instance did the slightest untoward event follow its use. The number of patients treated at the Dispensary and their own houses, was ,596. T. C. MORISON, DAVID JOHNSTON