The ninth annual report of the North Wales Counties Lunatic Asylum, Denbigh : for the year m.dccc.lvii.

  • North Wales Counties Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The ninth annual report of the North Wales Counties Lunatic Asylum, Denbigh : for the year m.dccc.lvii. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of the every-day working dres;:—a change which has given great satisfac¬ tion to the poor patients, and will eventually entail no increased expense upon the ratepayers. The apartments of the private patients have been rendered much more : comfortable and homelike. The walls have been papered, the floor carpeted, and the furniture in general improved. This will entail no ; expense upon the Counties in union, as it has been defrayed from the sub¬ scription fund. It is in no spirit of self-commendation, but with humble gratitude to the Giver of all good for His protecting care, that we remark the merciful exemption from suicide, with which this Asylum has been blessed_no case of self destruction having occurred since its opening, and notwith- j standing we have, in common with other Asylums, had many suicidal , patients. This enviable freedom from suicide was however very nearly i meeting with an interruption during the last summer. An old man, | upwards of 80, who had made several determined attempts upon his life before his admission, with the stratagem and cunning which marks the conduct of the suicidal, and which no vigilance can alwavs prevent, con¬ trived to secrete a knife about his person, and having entered a water¬ -closet, he inflicted several most extensive wounds on his throat, one of which nearly severed the windpipe. Not satisfied with this, he cut himself in the bend of each arm, and on his legs. When found, he was lying in a 'pool of blood, pale, cold, and pulseless. He was speedily removed to a warm bed. Stimulants were judiciously administered, his wounds were dressed, and 'notwithstanding the extent of injury inflicted, and the great loss of blood, ithe old man recovered most miraculously, in the course of two or three ;weeks, and he has remained well ever since—but, alas! by no means cured of his suicidal propensity; and nothing but continued vigilance can avail to prevent him from repeating the rash act, We have no change to notice in the moral or medical treatment of the patients. Our aim and object have always been, to make them as happy and as comfortable as their varied conditions will allow of. The appeal we ventured to make in our last Report in favor of such an addition to the Ablett Fund as would enable the visitors to admit those who are verging on poverty, and who are above the grade of pau¬ pers, upon reduced terms, has been most generously responded to by a