TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 669 



still more prominent notice by the investigations and reports of the Charity Organi- 

 sation Society of London. The most approved system of training juvenile idiots 

 and imbeciles is founded, as appears to me, on the same general principles, and 

 includes nearly the same details, as those on which the educational system in the 

 Richmond has been founded and carried out, until it has reached its present 

 development. 



By comparatively cheap structural changes, and the removal of a large number 

 of quiet and incurable cases at present in district asylums in Ireland, who might be 

 cared for sufficiently well in one or more workhouses selected and appropriated to 

 such a purpose, and at less cost than in the present district asylums, I believe that 

 accommodation might be made for some hundreds of juvenile idiots and imbeciles, 

 and means presented for their receiving that education and training of which they 

 are admittedly in urgent want. 



In the district lunatic asylums of Ireland the number of single rooms is, I 

 believe, much larger than is called for by what I consider to be the most advanced 

 opinions on the use of seclusion. In some of the best managed asylums of England 

 seclusion is very rare, and my own experience leads me to use it very sparingly. 

 In fact, a very large proportion of the single rooms in the Richmond Asylum are 

 occupied by the quietest patients in the house, with the view of putting into asso- 

 ciated dormitories the class of patients often called refractory, for whom single 

 rooms were formerly considered necessary. In my opinion, single rooms would not 

 be wanted in a larger proportion than one for every twenty patients. From the 

 thirty-fourth table of the Inspector's Report for 1872, which is the last return 

 o-iving the number of associated and single rooms in the district lunatic asylums of 

 Ireland, there appears to have been at that time about one single room on the 

 average for every four patients, making about 2000 single rooms in institutions with 

 a total number of patients amounting to 8000. The space occupied by single 

 rooms and the connecting corridor, if converted into large rooms, would accommo- 

 date two for every one accommodated according to present construction, and a gain 

 of 1600 beds would thus be available for the accommodation of large classes of the 

 insane at present in much need of suitable provision for their proper care and treat- 

 ment. I am confident that the means of treating the patients in a way more 

 conducive to their comfort and improvement would thus be obtained at a cost 

 which I would estimate not to exceed 201. per head, or about one-fourth of what it 

 would cost to build new asylums. The removal of quiet and incurable cases, and 

 the conversion of single rooms and corridors into large rooms, would in this asylum 

 alone give means for the education and training of several hundreds of the insane 

 who at present are deprived of such an opportunity. The present staff would, 

 without increase of numbers or of expense, be sufficient, and the advantages thus 

 offered on the score of experience and economy of time and money are obvious. 



Preconceptions founded on insufficient data would, I think, be removed by an 

 impartial examination of the system carried out in the Richmond Asylum, and it 

 will always give me great pleasure to afford persons anxious to judge it by personal 

 observation the opportunity of doing so ; but I would suggest that such persons 

 should visit during our school hours, viz. : — From nine to one o'clock, from April 1 

 to October 1, and ten to two o'clock from October 1 to April 1 (vacations at 

 Christmas, Easter, and Midsummer excepted). 



Summarising what I consider some very important items of our system here, I 

 note that out of 479 male patients in the house on May 17, 400 were employed 

 either at school or industrially, or both combined, and only 79 were wholly unem- 

 ployed ; 45 of the unemployed were so in consequence of being under medical 

 treatment, leaving only 34 men unemployed purely owing to their state of mind. 

 Of 553 female patients in the house on the same day, 448 were employed either at 

 school or industrially, or both combined, and 105 were wholly unemployed ; 89 of 

 the unemployed were so in consequence of being under medical treatment, leaving 

 only 50 unemployed purely from the state of their mind. In the management of 

 the* insane, it is of the first importance to keep them from mischief and harm ; 

 and with them, as with the sane, there is no means of doing this so reliable or so 

 good as healthful employment of mind and body. Morning and evening prayers 



