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The Broken Ribs in the Hanwell and Carmarthen Asylums

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2018

Extract

The Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy made upon the cases of Santi Nistri, a patient in Hanwell Asylum, and Rees Price, in the Carmarthen Asylum, who recently died from broken ribs and other injuries, has been printed by order of the House of Commons. With regard to the first-named patient, the Commissioners “are sorry to report that they have failed in obtaining any precise information of how or when the poor man received the injuries of which he died, but our inquiry has served to show various defects in the management of the Hanwell Asylum.” The patient died on the 11th of October; the Commissioners' visit and inquiry took place on the 5th of November. No wonder that they were unable to gain any information, and that “they could place no confidence in the statements of the patients, some of whom impressed us with the idea that they had been tutored.” We believe that the only chance of arriving at the true history of these cases is to institute an inquiry as soon as they occur, an inquiry which, from their experience, the Commissioners in Lunacy would be able to carry out much more effectually than the Coroner, who can only take the evidence which is offered to him. The Report reiterates the Commissioners' complaint of the insufficiency of the medical staff. The Committee of the Asylum, however, in an appended communication, decline to appoint a second medical officer. The Commissioners also recommend an increase in the number of attendants, a matter of equal if not greater importance. To this point we shall presently recur.

Type
Part I.—Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1870 

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