Seventeenth annual report of the Somerset County Pauper Lunatic Asylum : from the 1st of January to the end of the year 1864.

  • Somerset County Pauper Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Seventeenth annual report of the Somerset County Pauper Lunatic Asylum : from the 1st of January to the end of the year 1864. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    life, to lure away from unhappy thoughts, to implant ideas of a pleasing nature — with these things should the managers of asylums strive to surround their charge. Having before us the diet tables of several of the county asylums for pauper lunatics, we shall first of all occupy ourselves with these. It will be seen that they are numerous enough without engaging too much of our space to give a fair idea of the sort of treatment which the insane poor receive in this respect at these institutions. In addition we have received from Dr. Down the dietary of the Asylum for Idiots at Earlswood. In order to present the matter in the most intelligible form, we have represented in the following table the quantity of each article of diet sup¬ plied weekly to male patients in the different asylums, without distinguishing, except in the column for remarks and in the appended notes, the different meals at which they are given. This omission the reader will have no difficulty in filling in. And here is it to be remarked that it is a matter for regret that in the diet tables of the asylums the meat supplied is not always represented in weight as cooked and free from bone. It throws a difficulty in the way of calculating the supply when “ uncooked meat ” or “ uncooked meat including bone ” is mentioned. We have endeavoured to overcome it by the use of a table, resulting from certain experiments on the loss of weight sustained by meat in various modes of cooking given by Dr. Steele in the paper we formerly quoted, and which he read before the Association for the Promotion of Social Science last year. We reprint this table, then, here by way of parenthesis as our warrant for deducting as a fair average from the stated supply of “ uncooked meat” one-fourth of its weight, and from “ uncocked meat, including bone,” one-third. Original Weight. Loss in Cooking. Loss in Bones, etc. Total loss. Baking in close oven. Roasting with gas . ,, before a fire. Boiling... lbs. oz. 126 4 87 0 128 8 156 0 lbs. oz. 24 8 29 0 38 8 30 8 lbs. oz. 8 2 6 8 10 4 9 6 Per cent. 25*8 40-0 39-8 29‘3 477 12 122 8 34 4 32*8 Again, we may state, in explanation of our table, that where Irish-stew or meat-pie are mentioned as the dinner for the day, we have calculated the supply of meat to each patient at two ounces, where any larger amount is not actually placed in the tables. This quantity is small, but appears to be about the average, the difference in total weight of pie or stew being made up with potatoes and other vegetables, the liquor of a former day’s boiling of meat, and pie-crust. The following is the receipt for pie and stew followed at the Northampton Asylum, which may be taken as an example of the way in which those dishes are prepared in most of the rest:—“ Meat-pie.—2 oz. of uncooked meat, 12 oz. uncooked potatoes, 5 oz. of flour, with dripping. Irish-stew.— 2 oz. meat, 10 oz. uncooked potatoes, seasoned with pepper, salt, and onions. The liquor of the previous day’s boiled meat is added to the Irish-stew.” As solid meat appears in these dishes, we have included the days on which they are given for dinner, usually once or twice in the week, each of them, as among the “meat days.” The column relating to “ quantity of meat” will mostly give some idea of the frequency with which pie and stew are given.