Tuberculosis In Asylums Research Articles

Folie à plusieurs: forensic cases from nineteenth-century Ireland

Folie a plusieurs is a syndrome in which two or more individuals share symptoms (e.g., delusions). This paper uses archival material to present and discuss forensic psychiatric cases of folie a plusieurs from nineteenth-century Ireland. The cases of three brothers who all 'became insane at the same time' and killed another brother illustrate: the role of organic factors in folie a plusieurs; the use of 'moral management' strategies; and the problem of tuberculosis in asylums. The case of one woman whose family 'all became insane at once' and killed one of her sons illustrates: the importance of identifying the 'primary' patient; the difficulties experienced by 'secondary' cases; and the limited therapeutic progress achieved in nineteenth-century asylums. While further historical study is required to explain the emergence of the concept of folie a plusieurs in the late nineteenth century, it is clear that, over one hundred years since the term came to prominence, 'communicated insanity' still presents substantive diagnostic, clinical and ethical challenges to mental health and judicial services.

Notes upon the Incidence of Tuberculosis in Asylums

It is the prevalent opinion that phthisis is the scourge of our English lunatic asylums, and that these institutions are, literally speaking, hotbeds for the growth and distribution of the tubercle bacillus. In the Irish asylums, where the death-rate from phthisis alone amounts to nearly 30 per cent. of all causes of death, there seems to be just grounds for this belief. In the English asylums, however, the mortality is much lower, and is but little, if any, greater than that amongst the general population. This can be verified by examination of the Registrar-General's Report, from which it appears that phthisis accounts approximately for one in twelve of all deaths. These figures probably represent less than the true proportion of deaths from phthisis, since post-mortem examinations in the majority of cases are not made, and thus, doubtless, many cases of pulmonary tuberculosis are overlooked.

Some Points connected with Tuberculosis in Asylums

The subject of tuberculosis in asylums is by no means a new one. On the contrary, many have written upon it, probably long before Dr. Clouston, forty-two years ago, published his well-known remarks. It would be neither profitable nor desirable to enter here upon a discussion of the individual views expressed from time to time, but for many interesting and instructive observations it is only necessary to turn to the papers presented to this Association of recent years by Drs. Crookshank, Blair, France, Weatherly, Drapes, and others. This being so, you will not expect to hear anything new from me; in fact, I do not think I can lay claim to a single original observation; but as no one paper deals with any large portion of the procedure to be observed in combating the spread of tuberculosis in our asylums, and as my attention has, for the last nine or ten years, been directed to the problem of how to reduce the death rate without any great expenditure of money, I have thought it well to introduce a discussion rather on the actual details of procedure than on the principles involved, in order to stimulate the expression of opinions of all sorts; for it is evident that there are many equally good and efficient ways of arriving at the object which every asylum medical officer desires.

Tuberculosis in Asylums for the Insane.

Tuberculosis in Asylums for the Insane.

Tuberculosis in asylums

Tuberculosis in asylums

Tuberculosis in Asylums for the Insane.

Tuberculosis in Asylums for the Insane.

The Treatment of Tuberculosis in Asylums

The Treatment of Tuberculosis in Asylums

Tuberculosis in Asylums

Tuberculosis in Asylums

Abstract of a paper on the Necessity for Isolating the Phthisical Insane

I have no intention of tracing the history of tuberculosis in asylums through the official obscurity of the past fifty years. This point has already received careful investigation at the hands of Dr. Crookshank in the admirable essay he has recently published; nor are we here concerned with any comparison between the mortality from tubercle among asylum inmates and the mortality from tubercle among the general population, inasmuch as deductions drawn therefrom are liable, among other errors, to those fallacies which occur when two communities whose environment and susceptibility differ are compared as regards the mortality of any particular disease.