The second annual report of the state of the lunatic asylum for the County of Nottingham, and the sixty-sixth of the original institution, formerly the General Lunatic Asylum, 1876 / [Nottingham County Lunatic Asylum].

  • Nottingham County Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The second annual report of the state of the lunatic asylum for the County of Nottingham, and the sixty-sixth of the original institution, formerly the General Lunatic Asylum, 1876 / [Nottingham County Lunatic Asylum]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    facts and observe greater moderation. It may be expected that their example will in time exert a salutary influence over the less enlightened. The recoveries during the year were 47 or 37*9 per cent, on the admissions. The average for similar institutions in England and Wales for the preceding year was 34 T. The deaths were 47 or 9T on the total number under treatment, being a fraction over 8*7 the corresponding average elsewhere. Insanity as usual was more fatal to men than to women. This is explained by the former being more intemperate in their habits and more liable to physical injuries. The Asylum has been free from epidemic diseases. Accord¬ ing to published reports erysipelas has been a prevalent and fatal disease during the last two or three years in several Asylums of modern construction, but it has shewn no ten¬ dency to spread in this institution. This circumstance and the fact of its being the oldest County Asylum in the kingdom militate against the notion that old hospitals are necessarily the foci of disease. It would be unwise to presage any immunity from an outbreak of this character, but there are some arrangements here which appear to have sanitary advantages. 1. The buildings are protected against the east wind by the terraced land at the back. 2. The wards occu¬ pied by the patients have recreation grounds turfed and planted front and back, and currents of fresh air pass freely from one side to the other as the wind changes. 3. Eight out of ten of the wards open directly into the grounds, causing movements of air on ingress and egress. They are furnished with double sashed windows and heated by open fireplaces. 4. The chimneys have tops of improved construc¬ tion for facilitating the draught. These, with the systematic scraping and whitewashing of the premises have so far rendered the use of deodorizers and disinfectants almost unnecessary.