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.

    18/92 (page 14)
    The Commissioners assure themselves that the Committee of Visitors are desirous of placing the Somerset County Asylum in the most creditable state, and they, therefore, instruct me to request that you will call their particular attention to the before-mentioned entry ; and to suggest whether some of the. existing defects may not be remedied by engaging a larger staff of Attendants. They will be glad to learn, as soon as convenient, what steps the Visitors may determine upon, in order to bring the Asylum into a satisfactory condition. I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, W. C. SPRING RICE, G. W. Gunn, Esq., Secretary. Clerk to Visitors. KlNGWESTON, SOMERTOX, August 11 th, 1862. Sir, Your letter of July 3rd, and the Minute made by Messrs. Cambell and Gaskell, on June 21st, were brought under the notice of the Committee of Visitors of the Somerset County Asylum, at their monthly meeting, on July 17th, and the Clerk was directed to call a special meeting for August 2nd, to consider them. On that day ten members of the Committee attended, your letter and the minute were read, and the Committee enquired carefully of Dr. Boyd as to any suggestions he might have to make respecting them. Before I make a detailed reply to the statements contained in these documents, I must specially notice two of those statements, which surprised the Committee not a little. “ In No. 3 wards, on both sides, the floors of the single- “ rooms are saturated with urine, and in some cases rotten; “ these should be at once replaced by new flooring, and “ provision should be made to secure good ventilation under “ the boards.” At the meeting on Thursday, June 19th, two days before the visit of the Commissioners, the Committee ordered a large purchase of flooring on purpose to cure the defects of these single-rooms; and Dr. Boyd informs me that he told the Commissioners.