Suggestions as to the expediency of erecting a public asylum for the insane, belonging to the counties of Cumberland & Westmorland : in a series of letters to Edward Williams Hasell, esq., chairman of the Quarter Sessions / by Richard Oliver.

  • Oliver, Richard.
Date:
[1842-1843]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Suggestions as to the expediency of erecting a public asylum for the insane, belonging to the counties of Cumberland & Westmorland : in a series of letters to Edward Williams Hasell, esq., chairman of the Quarter Sessions / by Richard Oliver. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    bas not been tampered with by inexperience, nor lendereci iiopeless by delay—for It is amongst fhe few regrets which the retrospect of past years affords, that the most painful cases have ever been those In which one or other of these misfor- t'lnes has befallen. Whilst it is an acknowledged fact, that of those who are sent w'.Uiin two or three weeks of the commence- ment of the malady, nine-tenths are cured,’' On this subject it »uuld be an easy matter to adduce other evidence of not inferior importance, and not less so to bring forward proofs of the insufficiency of such accommodation as is provided for the poorer class ot lunatics belonging to tlie district in question In the establishmenis to whicn they are usually consigned. In tact nothing can be more obvious than the impropriety of placing such patients in institutions which are necessarily unprovided with the most esseutial means for their proper management; and when I call your attention to the tact that, in the adjacent counties of Northumberland and Durham, the only accommodation to lie met with is in licensed, or private Asylums, you will readily perceive that in these establishments, whatever may be the nature of their arrangements for the reception of affluent patients, it is next to impossible that there can be any thing like a suitable provision for the poor. Dven were there no other objection to the system of placing such pat ents in private houses, the very number of these bousiB (for there are five or six, 1 believe, in the neighbr urhood of Newcastle) must preclude the possibility of their respectively affording the requisite completeness of arrangement, which is only attainable in institutions of a consioerable size. Whilst a very small proportion of the lunatic paupers be- longing to Cunibeiland or Westmorland are placed in the ailroirable public asylum at Lancaster,—to say nothing of its inconvenient distance from the greater portion of the district in question, I am well assured that that institution has no room for more than its present number ol inmates. And at Dumfries, wnere the pieviuusly exisiingaccommoda- tion was insufficient for the wants of that part of the country, and even where an almost unparalleled act ui'private muni- ficence holds out a noble example of benevolent considera- tion lor the necessities ot the insane, it is not probable that any considerable number of poor patients can be received Irom distant places, whilst the extent of room for that class in the Crichton Institution is adapted for no more than 45; and whilst a prefetence is given to those from the counties ot^ Dutnfries and Wigtown, and from the stewartry of Kirkcudbright. In estimating the necessity of making a public provision lor the care and treatment of tbeinsane, I believe that too much stress can scarcely be laid on the ignorance which prevails with regard to the nature of insanity, and on the cruel expedients which are resorted to, from this cause, in cases where patients are separately taken charge of either by their own relatives or others. The allusion to such cases, in my former letter, does not imply the mete inct- dental possibility ot cruelty or ireglect; but distinctly signifies the absolute impossibility ot any other result, in all cases ol maniacal riisorder, where circumstances of the kind ^referred to, preclude the emplovnient of any method that is not necessarily associated with the rudest physical restraint. Although it may be difficult to ascertain the number of these cases in any given district; yet that their occurrence is much more frequent than is generally ima- gineil, and more especially in those parts ot the country which arc unprovided with proper institutions for their re- ception, the number of insane as compared with that of the general population, can scarcely leave room for a doubt. An example or two may furnish some notion of the grievous necessity that exists lor establishing ap institution, wliicli, by inducing the public to confide in the excellence ot its at rangeiiients, might be the means of obviating a large but unsuspected amount of misery. iMaiiy )eara ago, a respectable yeoman in this county became tlie subject ol this niolancriuly affliction. Vnriuus means were had recourse to at home, under the mistaken notion, no doubt, of providing in the most humane and effectual manner lor his pinper tteatment, Uecumiug offensive^ in his habits, he was no longer periiiittcil