Second annual report of the Committee of Visitors, Medical Superintendent, and Chaplain, with an account of receipts and expenditure, for the year ending 31st December, 1872 / Moulsford Lunatic Asylum.

  • Moulsford Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
[1873?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Second annual report of the Committee of Visitors, Medical Superintendent, and Chaplain, with an account of receipts and expenditure, for the year ending 31st December, 1872 / Moulsford Lunatic Asylum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/90 (page 17)
    from the same Union, will serve to illustrate the class to which allusion has been made. The first, a man 80 years of age, reported as having been for some time an inmate of the workhouse, when admitted was found to be quite fatuous and incapable of giving a coherent or sensible reply to any question, and in a state of feeble health and reduced bodily condition. It was also very soon dis¬ covered that he was extremely filthy in his habits, all his evacuations being passed without reference to cleanliness. He talked constantly to himself, and was rather restless, but perfectly harmless. Gradually, he became more infirm, and six months after admission died of senile decay. The next case was that of a female, aged 89, stated to have been an inmate of the workhouse for a month, who, on admission, was in a very weak-minded, incoherent, excited state; much emaciated, and in very feeble health; the heart-sounds being feeble, irregular, and intermittent. There was a slight bruise on her left leg, and an ulcer, apparently the result of an injury, was dis¬ covered on her forehead close to the hair. While in the asylum, she was very restless, troublesome, and sleepless; refused her food, and was wet and dirty in her habits. From the first her condition required the administration of stimulants and extra diet, but a week after admission, the sore referred to became the seat of erysipelas, which extended to the scalp, where an abscess formed. Tn a short time the erysipelas disappeared from the face and scalp, but by metastasis, affected the membranes of the brain, as death, preceded by coma, took place on the fol¬ lowing day. It may be added that this theory of the disease was fully confirmed by post-mortem examination. The last case narrated was undoubtedly one for treatment in an asylum, but, in order to have benefited by such treatment, should have been sent there at a much earlier B