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THE FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS IN LUNACY.
86
enable persons, not quite sane, have sought and obtained admission
THE Bill brought into the House of Commons to the County Council to purchase by agreement the rights of the London water companies has been printed. It authorises the Council to borrow the money required by creating fresh stock, under the Metropolitan Board of Works (Loans) Acts, 1869 to 1875, redeemable within sixty years. After payment of the expenses and dividends on the stock, the profits are to be applied in reducing the charge to the consumers of water, or, on the vote of the Council in any year, in reducing the metropolitan consolidated rate.
H.R.H. DUKE CHARLES, M.D., of Bavaria, continues in the Bavarian Tyrol the philanthropic practice of ophthalmic surgery, to which he devotes the spring months in the Austrian Tyrol. On the 3rd inst., at the Tegern See, he performed with complete success his one-thousandth operation for cataract. For the occasion, which was a festive one, the surgical theatre was decorated with flowers by the sisters of the hospital, of which his Royal Highness is the patron and working president.
BOLOGNA, following the initative of Milan, opened on June 30th an Instituto Anti-rabbico, or institution for the treatment of rabies on the Pasteur method. The King, the Prime Minister and the various civic and scientific bodies, as well as the townsfolk of Bologna, contributed the requisite funds. Every considerable Italian city will soon, it is anticipated, be provided with an institution of the kind.
registered hospitals as voluntary boarders. It is not clear, however, that the Commissioners themselves regard into
this very satisfactory source of increase in the number of inmates as fully commensurate to the falling oil which must be attributed to the natural reluctance of medical men to certify in a case where the symptoms of insanity are such as, though perhaps sufficient to justify a strong opinion on the part of a personal observer, are not very capable of demonstration in the witnessThe very formidable box after an interval of time. with which the it has within past few years been facility shown that actions can be brought and verdicts recovered against medical men who have certified to insanity has necessarily had a marked effect upon the feelings and practice in relation to this matter of medical men, and it may well be doubted if upon the whole the effect has been salutary. It is undeniably a matter of prime importance that in any transaction in which personal liberty is so nearly involved, the utmost care should be observed by those responsible for the conduct of the proceedings ; but it is, upon the other hand, a grievous public disadvantage that a serious obstacle should be thrown in the way of the most efficient treatment of slight and incipient mental disorder. This is a truth which the persistent growth of the lunacy figures is eminently calculated to bring home to the public mind. The actual figures of the increase for 1888 are as follows :-Private patients, 175; pauper patients, 1461 ; and criminal patients, 61, the last being subject to the explanation given above. The broad results of treatment as brought out by this report are much the same as heretofore, the proportion being fractionally better than last year, but still fractionally below the average of the decade. With the methods of treatment adoptedand the accommodation provided the Commissioners do not, upon the whole, find very much fault. In some instances, however, their criticisms are severe, and apparently not without reason. The following passages, for example, ought assuredly to receive the attention of the authorities in charge of the asylum in
Royal Commission on Vaccination held its third sitting Wednesday, the 10th inst. There was a full attendance of Commissioners. Dr. Ogle, of the General :Register Office, was further examined, and Dr. R. Thorne question "The THE
on
Thorne, assistant medical officer to Board, also gave evidence.
the Local Government
IT is stated that the four new members of the Scotch Universities Commission who will be nominated on report of the Universities Bill will be-Dr. J. G. Blackie, Sir Henry Thompson, Dr. Heron Watson, and Professor
Culverwood. ___
DR.
PAVY, whose
term of office
as
Physician
at
Guy’s
has
expired, has been invited by the governors Hospital and staff to hold the appointment for another year. Dr L. E. Shaw succeeds the late Dr. Wooldridge as assistant
physician. THE FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS IN LUNACY. THE Report of the Lunacy Commission for the year 1888 shows that the growth of the population under the charge of the Commissioners continues to exhibit that unwelcome expansion with which the reports of several years past have made us familiar. The increase last year was fractionally less than in 1887, but still it was substantial, and it is sufficiently disappointing to find that from year to year the number of patients who come for treatment into our various asylums and hospitals for the mentally afflicted shows a steady augmentation. To some extent, however, the figures
careful
report of the Commissioners ...... showing that at the date of their visit nothing had been done towards improving the water-supply, so long a subject of unfavourable comment by them, to a letter being written by our direction on Aug. lst, 1888, to the Committee of Visitors, urging them strongly to remedy the existing defect either by sinking a new well, as recommended by Mr. Rogers Field in 1886, or in some other equally efficacious manner. The answer received, however, dated Aug. lGth, 1888, only informed us that the visitors still had the question under consideration, and, having heard nothing subsequently, we were forced to the conclusion that the thoroughly unsatisfactory sanitary condition of this asylum in regard to its water-supply, pointed out by us, remains unremedied. Experience shows that delay in these cases is very dangerous, and often attended with fatal results." Happily, the case is exceptional, and indeed, so far as the present report shows, unique. We should hope that the above observations will lead to the solution of what is at best a, very serious question between the Commissioners and the Visiting Committee.
led
PROPOSED CHAIR
OF
PHYSIOLOGY
FOR
DUNDEE
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. - At a meeting of the College Council held last week, it was announced that Mr. John Bett, a merchant of Rohallion, had oilered one-third of the amount required to found and establish a chair of Physiology in connexion with the Medical School of the College, provided the remaining two-thirds required be raised. It is estimated that the total sum necessary for the endowment of the chair and the furnishing of suitable buildings will be about,C]5,000. The foundation of this chair would enable the College to complete the first two years of a medical etiri-ictiltiiii. A vote of thanks was accorded to Mr. Bett for for 1888 are umluly aggravated in this respect, for they his Ii uel111 oiler. who some include among the pauper lunatics sixty patients VEST LONDON MEDICAL AND CHIInTRGICAL SOCIETY. have been transferred from the hospital wards of the Woking Prison to the BroadmoorAsylum, and have thus been brought The seventh annual dinner of this Society was held on within the jurisdiction of the Commissioners, not by access of June 14th, in the Crosvenor Gallery, Dr. Travers, the their malady which had attacked them before, but by virtue President of the Society, being in the chair. There was a of their translation to a new locality. In the case of private large and distinguished attendance. The entertainment and pauper patients one would gladly accept the view of the some excellent music-part songs, quartets, and comprised Commissioners who explain that an increased number of solos being interspersed between the toasts.
enable persons, not quite sane, have sought and obtained admission
THE Bill brought into the House of Commons to the County Council to purchase by agreement the rights of the London water companies has been printed. It authorises the Council to borrow the money required by creating fresh stock, under the Metropolitan Board of Works (Loans) Acts, 1869 to 1875, redeemable within sixty years. After payment of the expenses and dividends on the stock, the profits are to be applied in reducing the charge to the consumers of water, or, on the vote of the Council in any year, in reducing the metropolitan consolidated rate.
H.R.H. DUKE CHARLES, M.D., of Bavaria, continues in the Bavarian Tyrol the philanthropic practice of ophthalmic surgery, to which he devotes the spring months in the Austrian Tyrol. On the 3rd inst., at the Tegern See, he performed with complete success his one-thousandth operation for cataract. For the occasion, which was a festive one, the surgical theatre was decorated with flowers by the sisters of the hospital, of which his Royal Highness is the patron and working president.
BOLOGNA, following the initative of Milan, opened on June 30th an Instituto Anti-rabbico, or institution for the treatment of rabies on the Pasteur method. The King, the Prime Minister and the various civic and scientific bodies, as well as the townsfolk of Bologna, contributed the requisite funds. Every considerable Italian city will soon, it is anticipated, be provided with an institution of the kind.
registered hospitals as voluntary boarders. It is not clear, however, that the Commissioners themselves regard into
this very satisfactory source of increase in the number of inmates as fully commensurate to the falling oil which must be attributed to the natural reluctance of medical men to certify in a case where the symptoms of insanity are such as, though perhaps sufficient to justify a strong opinion on the part of a personal observer, are not very capable of demonstration in the witnessThe very formidable box after an interval of time. with which the it has within past few years been facility shown that actions can be brought and verdicts recovered against medical men who have certified to insanity has necessarily had a marked effect upon the feelings and practice in relation to this matter of medical men, and it may well be doubted if upon the whole the effect has been salutary. It is undeniably a matter of prime importance that in any transaction in which personal liberty is so nearly involved, the utmost care should be observed by those responsible for the conduct of the proceedings ; but it is, upon the other hand, a grievous public disadvantage that a serious obstacle should be thrown in the way of the most efficient treatment of slight and incipient mental disorder. This is a truth which the persistent growth of the lunacy figures is eminently calculated to bring home to the public mind. The actual figures of the increase for 1888 are as follows :-Private patients, 175; pauper patients, 1461 ; and criminal patients, 61, the last being subject to the explanation given above. The broad results of treatment as brought out by this report are much the same as heretofore, the proportion being fractionally better than last year, but still fractionally below the average of the decade. With the methods of treatment adoptedand the accommodation provided the Commissioners do not, upon the whole, find very much fault. In some instances, however, their criticisms are severe, and apparently not without reason. The following passages, for example, ought assuredly to receive the attention of the authorities in charge of the asylum in
Royal Commission on Vaccination held its third sitting Wednesday, the 10th inst. There was a full attendance of Commissioners. Dr. Ogle, of the General :Register Office, was further examined, and Dr. R. Thorne question "The THE
on
Thorne, assistant medical officer to Board, also gave evidence.
the Local Government
IT is stated that the four new members of the Scotch Universities Commission who will be nominated on report of the Universities Bill will be-Dr. J. G. Blackie, Sir Henry Thompson, Dr. Heron Watson, and Professor
Culverwood. ___
DR.
PAVY, whose
term of office
as
Physician
at
Guy’s
has
expired, has been invited by the governors Hospital and staff to hold the appointment for another year. Dr L. E. Shaw succeeds the late Dr. Wooldridge as assistant
physician. THE FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS IN LUNACY. THE Report of the Lunacy Commission for the year 1888 shows that the growth of the population under the charge of the Commissioners continues to exhibit that unwelcome expansion with which the reports of several years past have made us familiar. The increase last year was fractionally less than in 1887, but still it was substantial, and it is sufficiently disappointing to find that from year to year the number of patients who come for treatment into our various asylums and hospitals for the mentally afflicted shows a steady augmentation. To some extent, however, the figures
careful
report of the Commissioners ...... showing that at the date of their visit nothing had been done towards improving the water-supply, so long a subject of unfavourable comment by them, to a letter being written by our direction on Aug. lst, 1888, to the Committee of Visitors, urging them strongly to remedy the existing defect either by sinking a new well, as recommended by Mr. Rogers Field in 1886, or in some other equally efficacious manner. The answer received, however, dated Aug. lGth, 1888, only informed us that the visitors still had the question under consideration, and, having heard nothing subsequently, we were forced to the conclusion that the thoroughly unsatisfactory sanitary condition of this asylum in regard to its water-supply, pointed out by us, remains unremedied. Experience shows that delay in these cases is very dangerous, and often attended with fatal results." Happily, the case is exceptional, and indeed, so far as the present report shows, unique. We should hope that the above observations will lead to the solution of what is at best a, very serious question between the Commissioners and the Visiting Committee.
led
PROPOSED CHAIR
OF
PHYSIOLOGY
FOR
DUNDEE
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. - At a meeting of the College Council held last week, it was announced that Mr. John Bett, a merchant of Rohallion, had oilered one-third of the amount required to found and establish a chair of Physiology in connexion with the Medical School of the College, provided the remaining two-thirds required be raised. It is estimated that the total sum necessary for the endowment of the chair and the furnishing of suitable buildings will be about,C]5,000. The foundation of this chair would enable the College to complete the first two years of a medical etiri-ictiltiiii. A vote of thanks was accorded to Mr. Bett for for 1888 are umluly aggravated in this respect, for they his Ii uel111 oiler. who some include among the pauper lunatics sixty patients VEST LONDON MEDICAL AND CHIInTRGICAL SOCIETY. have been transferred from the hospital wards of the Woking Prison to the BroadmoorAsylum, and have thus been brought The seventh annual dinner of this Society was held on within the jurisdiction of the Commissioners, not by access of June 14th, in the Crosvenor Gallery, Dr. Travers, the their malady which had attacked them before, but by virtue President of the Society, being in the chair. There was a of their translation to a new locality. In the case of private large and distinguished attendance. The entertainment and pauper patients one would gladly accept the view of the some excellent music-part songs, quartets, and comprised Commissioners who explain that an increased number of solos being interspersed between the toasts.