Fifteenth annual report of the Somerset County Pauper Lunatic Asylum : from the 1st of January, to the end of the year 1862.

  • Somerset County Pauper Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fifteenth annual report of the Somerset County Pauper Lunatic Asylum : from the 1st of January, to the end of the year 1862. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/92 (page 13)
    to improve the habits and conduct of the inmates. If supernu¬ merary attendants were engaged, more might be done in promoting occupation and order among the patients. The new single-rooms, which have been formed out of the old bake-house, require better ventilation. Some of the bath-rooms are not in good order, and we think, if a few moveable hip and sponge-baths were provided for the women, they would be found very useful. We were glad to notice that the walls of one of the female wards were being coloured, and we were informed that this improvement will be carried into other parts of the building. Additional chairs will also be furnished for the use of the inmates. We have examined the case book, and other records, which are kept with skill and care ; and the medical treatment of the patients is evidently very well attended to. W. G. CAMBELL, } Commissioners F. GASKELL, \ in Lunacy. Office of Commissioners in Lunacy, 19, Whitehall Place, S.W., 3rd July, 1862. Sir, , ... The entry made by two members of this Commission m the Visitors’ Book of the Somerset County Asylum, on the 21st of June last, has been read at the Board, by whom I am directed to request that you will bring the same under the especial notice of the Committee of Visitors, at the first opportunity. The Board observe (amongst other things)— 1. That the dresses of some of the patients (particularly those of the women in No. 3) were very insufficient and unsatisfactory. 2. That the ventilation in many of the galleries and single-rooms was exceedingly defective. 3. That the floors of the single-rooms, in No. 3, were saturated with urine, and rotten. 4. That some beds were made up wet; and 5. That the baths and airing courts were in bad order. The subject of the disorder of the grounds; of the bad state of the clothes, and want of stockings ; of the Bath-room; the increase of Attendants; and of the ventilation (the ventilation repeatedly), have been adverted to in former entries.