The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1871.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 900, 14 December 1871, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1871.

The report of the Joint Committee upon the Lunatic Asylums of the Colony has been published. It is short, and offers no opinion as to the advisability of establishing a general Central Asylum for each island, or the entire Colony, although it was, we believe, chiefly that a satisfactory solution of this question might be obtained that the Committee was appointed. The report states that the Asylums in the Colony have neither proper nor sufficient accommodation for the reception and care of luuatics, and it recommends that the General Government should take measures to cause proper provision to be made, that a duly qualified medical officer from the United Kingdom having special knowledge and experience in the treatment of the, insane shall have the supervision and control of all the Lunatic Asylums in the Colony j and, that early steps be taken to improve the condition of the Asylum at Karori near Wellington, as it urgently requires immediate attention and reform Further, the Committee recommend, that the question of a general Central Asylum be postponed until next session, by which time information will

have been obtained to guide the action of Parliament. The weight of evidence appended to the report inclines to the establishment of a large Central Asylum as likely to receive superior supervision, and to afford patients the benefit of higher medical skill and of a superior class of trained keepers and assistants. The report of a personal inspection made by Dr Buchanan of the Lunatic Asylum at Karori, concludes with the statement that, "it would be a blot on humanity if the Colonial Government should 'fail to step in and remedy the state of things existing." He describes the asylum as possessing "no bath room or any other appliance for the cleansing of the shin, which is so essential to health, especially in persons labouring under disease of any kind" ; while to increase the chances of stimulating disease, " there is a large open cess-pool, close to the paling of the exercising yard, into which all the filth of the asylum is discharged. There is no attempt at curative treatment, neither keeper nor matron having any special knowledge of the subject; and as far as my information allowed me to form an opinion, the patients are kept only like so many animals might be kept, in order to prevent them from injuring the rest of the community." Such would appear to be the sad condition of a lunatic asylum situate within a few miles of the political capital of the colony. The attention of the Colonial Government, therefore, has been directed none too soon to the defectiveness of our pi'esent institutions for the insaue. And unfortunately the longer the evil is left undealfc with, the greater it is likely to become. Mr llerne, manager of the Dunedin Asylum, gives it as his opinion that insanity is on the increase in the colony. The daily average of patients at the Dunedin institution was for the first year 37; last year it was 123. In the other asylums in the colony they have increased in proportion ; and laying aside the proposed increased accommodation, there is every likelihood that during the next eight years the three principal asylums at Auckland, Dunedin, and Christchurch will have each from 300 to 100 inmates, and the central establishment, if erected, even greater than that number. Thr» following paragraph from a report furnished by Thomas Aickin ; M.D., resident surgeon of the Asylum at Auckland, illustrates to our think, ing the urgent necessity of large central establishments wherein the afflicted could be scientifically classified and treated:—

All acute cases occurring for the first time are presumed to be curable. The medical officer of an asylum should endeavour to remove every obstacle in the way of effecting so desirable a result; but the greatest obstacle to the recovery of curable cases in a mixed multitude of lunatics is the incurable, noisy, and refractory cases, which crowd the wards, and sadly interfere with the arrangements for the better treatment of curable, cases. The idiotic, imbecile, and demented, are unavoidably mixed up with those who retain sufficient intelligence to feel the degradation and irksomeness of their position, and who, by a few nights' quiet sleep, might be rescued from the horrors of confirmed madness. It must be borne in mind that one noisy and turbulent patient has the power to disturb all the occupants of an associated ward. It may, therefore, be confidently affirmed that the want of accommodation calculated to permit the classification of lunatics, according to the requirements of individual cases, constitutes the chief difficulty in the treatment of curable cases in asylums, which are merely constructed for the reception of cases in general, without due regard to the requirements of particular classes.