Annual report.

  • Newcastle upon Tyne Borough Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    10 were discharged within a year of their admission; while of the 31 deaths 21 (or 67 per cent.) died within the same period. This view is borne out by Table VIII., in which it is shown that of the 27 recoveries, 11 (or 40 per cent.) were cases of first attack, and within three months of admission ; and of the 31 deaths 13 (or 42 per cent.) were in the same class. Table IX. shows that insanity is most active in the prime of life. Of the 87 admissions, GO cases (or 76 per cent, of the whole) were between the ages of 21 and 50 years. Of the 27 recoveries, 23 (or 85 per cent.), and of the 31 deaths 20 (or 60 per cent.) were at the same time of life. Table X. gives the condition as to marriage in the admissions, discharges, and deaths. The admission columns show that about O 7 50 per cent, were married, 37 per cent, were single, and 13 per cent, were widowed. According to the census returns of 1881, the proportion of married, single, and widowed to the whole population of England and Wales, excluding all under 15 years of age, was about 55, 37, and 9 per cent, respectively. Table XL, giving the cause of the insanity in each of the admissions, discharges, and deaths during the year, shows a large number of cases in which the malady was, after a careful inves- tigation of the history of each, traceable to a physical cause. No less than 66 of the 87 admissions, or 75 per cent., were of this class; and probably some of the 15 unknown were so, but I have always been most scrupulous in abstaining from assigning causes in doubtful cases, however strong my suspicions may be. Intemperance in drink figures in only 6 (or about 7 per cent.) of the 87 admissions. But it must be remembered that in this table only one cause in each case can be given. This is naturally that one which appears to be the most important, though others may run it very close. Thus epilepsy may, under the heading of other bodily disorders, be the assigned cause in a certain case, though intemperance in drink may have been nearly as impor- tant a factor in producing the insanity. The result, however, of