The Nova Scotia Hospital for the Insane. Annual Report
In this institution, to which 74 new patients were admitted in 1879, the death-rate for the year, on a total population of 436, has been only 3*5 per cent., and the number of discharges nearly equalled the number of admissions?72 compared to 74.
The outdoor employment of patients is largely resorted to, but the report indicates the trouble experienced in per- mitting any great number of patients to enjoy open-air exercise without a complicated system of guards. This should scarcely be a matter of difficulty, if properly carried out; it might even be found advantageous to permit a more extensive freedom than seems at present to be enjoyed at this establish- ment. It rarely happens that privileges accorded to the more rational of the insane are abused, and a general acceptance of the English system of open-door treatment, adopted in the best private asylums, might be more universally observed. We can well imagine that, as the report before us observes, ” Picking oakum, or any monotonous labour, is a variety that does not appeal strongly to the intellect,” and we fully appreciate the desire of the superintendent, Dr Reid, for a larger variety of indoor occupation for his patients?occupations of a healthful and cheerful nature.
It is satisfactory to note the assiduous manner in which im- provements are carried out, judging from the report forwarded to us, in transatlantic asylums for the insane. A hint might well be taken in this respect by the public institutions in this country from the Americans. In all respects the institution under notice seems to have followed the path of progress.
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