Lunatic Asylums In Ireland
83 Am. IV
aving taken a rapid glance at the origin, progress, and present con- 1 lon of our own lunatic asylums, in our last number, we turn, with 110 ordinary interest, to consider the subject so far as it relates to the Slster kingdom.
-Bad as have been the legislative provisions for England, matters do ^?t seem to have worn a much better aspect in the sister kingdom, y reference to parliamentary papers, we find tliat no notice was taken, ef?re the Act of Union, of the condition of the Irish lunatic. In fact, ANe might have supposed that lunatics had no existence in that country. Some provision, indeed, had been made in regard to the county of Cork; but it was too limited in its nature, and so confined in fS ?Peration, that it is almost unnecessary to mention it as an exception 0 the rest of Ireland. In 1801, a Committee of the House of Commons Passed a series of resolutions to the effect that certain acts of parlia- ment (27 Geo. III.), not having been fully carried out, inasmuch as . provisions had been made only in Dublin for 118 lunatics and | iotsj in Cork, for 90; in Waterford, for 25; further and more decided eb’slation became necessary. In 1806, a kind of half-prison, lialf- ^edical act (known as 46 Geo. III. c. xcv.) was passed; its second ause empowered a sum, not exceeding 100/. per annum, to be levied or Wards for the reception, in any hospital, &c., of a county, city, or c?unty of a town, of idiots or lunatics. This Act had been found neces- ^ on the grounds, as the committee stated, that, ” with the exception the four above-named towns, it did not appear that any institution Maintained in any degree at the public expense, exists in any part of of f ^ie reception of such cases.” This was indeed a sad picture le state of the lunatic poor of Ireland, at a period (1805-6) when her ^opulation, by official returns, amounted to 5,395,000 souls. This Act and’ m?reover’ Passed in 1806, mainly on the ground “that the poor the ^1G ^UUa^c were confined in the same houses?a practice from which , raost distressing inconveniences resulted, the method of confinement ?n^r fitted for malefactors,” &c.
year ? ^ear^ struggle in which Great Britain was then and for many Until KUbsC(lUently engaged, rendered almost any minor subject distasteful, Co t* S 16 some extent freed her homes from the terrors of the 181 | emperor; and nothing appears to have been done until in ?Do t ‘ 6 ev^ became so pressing and so enormous, that further As i . ent was impossible. As an experiment, the Richmond in Dublin, was empowered to receive certain grants from the ;
British treasury; and, in 1815, accommodation was opened for 200 patients, or ratlier prisoners, for as }*et we liave not arrived at the point of separation. Even that accommodation appeared almost useless, since, in 181G, the following report was made to Government: ” I have seen three?certainly two?lunatics in one bed in the House of Industry (Dublin). I have seen, I think, not fewer than fifty or sixty persons in one room, of which, I believe, the majority were insane. I have seen in the same room a lunatic chained in a bed, the other half of which was occupied by a sane pauper.” Such was, up to 1817, even in the metropolis of Ireland, the condition of the Irish lunatic. With clear and recorded testimony such as the above, given by cool and dispassionate men, whose characters and integrity were beyond suspicion, and whose legitimate influence was very great, it became utterly impossible that such a state of things could longer exist without some remedy being applied. A Committee of the House of Commons was soon after appointed to devise the best means of meeting the evil- An able and comprehensive report (considering the time) was the result. This document, it is believed, was the production of a man, of whom his country may well be proud, (Lord Monteagle,) and whose labours for the improvement of his unfortunate country have been at all times steady and consistent. It was recommended to divide Ireland into districts,?to erect for each district a lunatic asylum, capable of containing 100 or 150 patients; the money requisite for the purpose to be advanced from the consolidated fund as a loan, repayable by the districts 011 certain conditions,?to place these new institutions ex- clusively under the control of the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. In the first instance, four; then six; and subsequently, ten districts were created, and ten asylums built: officers were appointed by the executive, and boards of superintendence, agreeably to the provisions of the act of parliament, were nominated by succeeding lords lieutenant. In fact, everything appeared to have been done to secure accommodation and care for such lunatics as obtained admission, save one,?that one omis- sion was, that these asylums were considered rather as prisons than as hospitals. They were, in every instance, placed under civil governors or superintendents: one medical officer, a practising physician in the neighbouring town, was attached. He visited, according to the first regulations, twice a-week, unless when specially called for to accidents or sudden disease; in a word, he was often twenty miles away, attending his private avocations, when his immediate and pressing attendance might demand his professional duty at the asylum. The inspection of these institutions was placed under the prison department; in a word, the afflicted lunatic was looked 011 as a criminal, or an outcast, and treated as such, until recently; as in gaols, the medical attendant paid occasional visit. Leg-locks, restraint-chains, bolts, and barred Endows were supposed to do the rest.*
^ was soon found that the accommodation provided in these new asJ huns, and which amounted to 1220, was too limited. The number ?^veiled almost at once up to 2000, while the gaols, to which recent of parliament had facilitated admission, (inasmuch as gaols and Qatic asylums were bundled together by legislative and executive ^sdom,) became so crowded by dangerous lunatics that all order and *egularity seemed to be seriously impeded. In 1841, the lunatics con- ned in gaols amounted to 110; in 1843, they swelled to 214; and in ‘ notwithstanding the various causes which might be supposed to ,, the evil, the number again increased to 338, while the inmates of e district asylums were found to be 2603.
Ihe following analysis of the lunatic poor of Ireland may more inclusively show their present condition than any lengthened remarks c?uld d0. 1 J ? No. 1. upers in Dis- ‘ct Asylums. Pa, Males Fem. 1348 1250 200,3 No. 2. Paupers in Local Asylums. Males Fem. 101 214 300 No. 3. No. 4. I Workhouses. in Gaols. Males Fem. 190 140 338 Males Fem. 778 1102 1940 No. 5. Wanderingldlots! or Lunatics. About 0000 agreeably to Police rations. Tlius we find that although legislation has done something for le lunatic poor of Ireland, excepting those in columns 1, 2, 3, little if au} provision exists for an overwhelming body of this unfortunate class. ? J
car^ mus^ admitted, on all hands, that owing to the vigilance and ^ CXercised by the present inspectors?Messrs. White and Nugent, patients in column 1 are fully and steadily attended to, both nioral and medical point of view, in such asylums as are provided resident medical officers, and that, so far as it is possible in the ninS district asylums where such officers do not exist, the wants foil C?.m*orts ?f the inmates are anxiously looked after. But from the a .riUS ?fficial statements in 1843, it is clear that in local pauper . urns the condition of the lunatic was dreadful in the extreme. (( . kei y-nme lunatics have been confined in the local asylum of Kil- r001u ? twenty-five males and twenty-four females, with only one 111 colrunon to males and females for dinner. The day I visited * Xhe return^ i iCOst restraints for one district asylum, some vears ago, was officially ur?ed lor one year at ?37 3.. 9d. ‘ it there were twenty females at dinner in a small room wlien tliey ?were done the males came in and dined.” At Wexford matters were as follow :?
” The state of the local asylum of Wexford is most disgraceful, one patient chained to a wall. He was naked, with a parcel o oose s ra about him. He darted forward; and were it not t ia ie w’, checked by a chain which went round his leg, and was as en to the wall by a hook, he would have caught hold o me, a probably used violence; I went to another cell, and aT 10U?,1 chained, the individual was almost as bad as the other. _ wen another room, I looked around, I heard somebody moaning?-on top of a screen I saw two unfortunate lunatics stretched ou , iey trying to warm themselves through the bars of a grating, ie room so dark that I could not see them at first. Such is the recorded evidence of, perhaps, one of the mildest and most amiable’ public officers that ever existed?Dr Francis White, mspec or of prisons and lunatic asylums in 1843. _ ‘ In reference to the condition of lunatics confined in the Irisa w ?i * houses, we would wish to drop a veil. The portrait is a tern ) e one Their state cannot, perhaps, be paralleled in savage or civi lze us 01j 1’” We have now traced legislation and the actual condition o uc lunatic poor down to 1841; up to which period tic ns 0 lunatic’asylums is intimately interwoven; in fact, forms an cssen ia c of the”prison discipline of that country: a rapid change a ou period^commenced, and although checked in 1843-4, it has piogiesse a most satisfactory manner since the latter year. Lord i u arae, one of his last acts, nominated Dr Stewart as manager oi cii goveri of Belfast. The local authorities, after much discussion with inspectors .and others, deemed it desirable that his services as a medical man should be made available for the good of the public. The obso e e regulations prohibiting this were set aside. The change was most bene ficial, and stood out in marked relief with other institutions painfu y reported on by Sir David Barr, when officially visiting the pub ic medical establishments of Ireland in 1841. Earl Fortescue nominated another medical gentleman, Dr Flynn, to the Clonmel Asylum. Th wedge was now effectually introduced. Upon a change of government, parties interested in keeping up the exclusion of medical men from their legitimate position, set themselves steadily, but, as the evidence given before parliament proves, stealthily, to work. The then Lord Chan- cellor of Ireland, Sir Edward Sugden, was enlisted against medica superintendence. His high name, his exalted character, and his pure, unostentatious benevolence, were all arrayed against this simple an humane provision, and in 1843 a code of regulations, under that great man’s auspices, was run through the Privy Council of Ireland, wluc seemed to close every lunatic asylum, and for ever, against resident Medical superintendence.
Monopoly and selfishness knew no bounds to tlieir triumph?their annual local reports and parliamentary documents re-eclioed tlie victory. ?Medical men, alas! for tlie profession?ay, even medical men, put for- ward tlieir claims to public approbation, for being instrumental in excluding tlieir own profession from its legitimate field of labour and ?f humanity. The victory was, however, of short duration: nobly did the English medical literature vindicate the profession. These regu- lations were also reviewed in France, Prussia, America?their absurd, eontradictory, and vicious provisions, were exposed: the very authors ?f them at last felt ashamed of their wickedness; the transparent veil “Which covered the designs of their fabrications was torn asunder, and finally, the Report of the Lords’ Committee, in 1843, on the State of the Lunatic Poor, laid the foundation for their permanent overthrow. ?Lord Ashley’s Bill, in 1844, became law. None but medical men, henceforward, could, in England, be superintendents of her asylums. Sir James Graham carried to the working of the Bill the weight of government ^fluence, and the anomalous spectacle was presented of a legal penalty heiug attached to any asylum in England having fifty patients and not having a medical officer residing and in charge of them, while in Ireland, Under the same high functionary, as home secretary, no medical man, even if he happened to be a manager or civil governor of an Irish dis- trict lunatic asylum, and as sucli holding office immediately undei Sir James Graham, could administer a dose of castor-oil to a patient within the walls of his asylum!
Human absurdity could go no further, and legislative interference eame quietly to the rcscue. In 1845 a new Lunatic Asylum Bill became the law; the prisons and asylums now parted company. Dr White “Was appointed inspector, and in 184G Dr Nugent was added; and from this period a new and vigorous spirit has been evoked. In the first number of our Journal, we took the condition of the lunatic asylums in Ireland to task. Change after change has taken place; the old rules and regulations of 1843 have perished, in Carlow, Belfast, Limerick, Wonmel, and even in the cradle of their birth, Maryborough, by the appointment, as vacancies occurred, of resident physicians, or by the extension of their duties to such medical gentlemen as happened to have been managers. Much has thus been effected, but yet more remains behind.
Richmond Asylum, with 290 patients, under the very eye of the government, in Dublin, has no resident medical officer. Ballinasloe With 300 patients, has no resident medical officer. Cork, with its noble college, and its crowd of literary and scientific institutions, has no resident medical officer for its 420 patients. Neither lias Deny, TV ater ford, nor Armagh. There are omissions in the every-day labours o irliumane executive, which only need be pointed out to liae a reme } at once applied.
What uniformity of action, of returns, or result, can goernmen expect from the institutions under its immediate control, if so imper ec , so unwise, and we will even add, so barbarous a system is permitte exist in this respect. Neither is it to be supposed for onemomen , with such vigorous intellects as those of Sir George Grey, Lor aren o , Sir William Somerville, and Sir Thomas Redington, things can remain they are, if only the subject be fully and fairly considered m a 1 s ings by them. Let us, then, use all the energies of the pi ess 111 n^ an , and all the force which justice and humanity never fail to eo *e 111 minds of honest and able men, to carry out the full and fair provisions our English system, so far as the remaining non-medical asy urns o Ireland are concerned. All sections of society who wis “\e 0 lunatic should take up this matter, and give then lieaity an piac ic aid to the good cause. Our columns will be evei open to t ic a v oca of this cause, and we trust ere long to record the most sa is ac o ) results. In the meantime let us cheer on the Iiish inspectors in present arduous labours. They are deserving the fu mee o pu ^ approbation and support, and we cheerfully and at once accor our warm thanks and gratitude on the part of our medical brethren. Having so far touched on the government distiict unatic as) um , remains to say a few words on other establishments c eo e , ei 1 wholly or in part, to the insane. Dean Swift, it is well^ .nown, fine and improving property for the care of idiots and insane persons . by the last available return it appears that there were sixty pam ai eighty-two free inmates, but not a particle of information cou c >e gleaned as to its financial arrangements; indeed, in a note to the repor of the lunacy inspectors (page 30) for the year 1816-7, it is state “that the expenditure for the year 1845 could not be ascertame . Admitting to the fullest extent that everything is well conducted; it not seemly, in a Blue Book presented by command of her Majcst) to parliament, that by the official organs of the government, so far as lunatic asylums are concerned, such a serious remark, calculatcd to create unpleasant feelings in the public mind, should be made. In the Island Bridge department of the Old House of Industry, Dublin, there appeared from the last return to have been about 329 idiots and lunatics confined, exclusively supported from a parliamentary grant, and which is now in gradual progress of extinction. It is time, in truth, that all lunatics should be placed in suitable institutions, as more m accordance witli discipline and humanity; tlie extinction, therefore, of this establishment must he hailed as a still further step in advance. The private asylums of Ireland are not numerous nor extensive; there are two in Cork, one in Armagh, eight in Dublin, one in Waterford, 011e in Limerick, and one in Maryborough; in public confidence they stand high. No complaint appears to have been ever recorded of in- justice or cruelty; and the inspectors, in their annual Reports, speak 111 terms of warm approbation of the parties under. whom they are inducted.
In conclusion, we have good reason to be satisfied with the progress- ?f humane treatment towards the lunatics in Ireland; and when the five new district asylums now in progress of erection are completed; ^hen all shall be placed under the charge of resident medical men of character and efficiency; and when the powers of the inspectors shall have been more fully recognised and consolidated; when, in fact, the executive will have organized an active system of co-operation between the as yet disjointed members of this department, Ireland may fairly ctaim a high position with regard to her public lunatic establish- ments anions the other nations of the civilized world.
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