H.—No. 10.

14

REPORT OE THE JOINT COMMITTEE

Sunnyside Asylum.

female lavatory and sleeping ward had been got rid of by alteration in the drainage of the closets closo by ; the air in the lavatory and the ward adjoining were now perfectly sweet and fresh, leaving nothing to be desired on this score. The attendants' rooms were also in excellent order. The whole of the rooms, passages, and outbuildings belonging to the asylum presented the same remarkable appearance of neatness and scrupulous cleanliness aud care, as I had occasion to notice to you specially in a former report, except in regard to some of the attendants' room. These, on the present inspection, were in the same satisfactory condition as all the others. The sleeping and day wards are all well ventilated, and while the latter are well warmed at this cold season, a free circulation of fresh air is kept up throughout. The patients themselves are noticeably neat and clean in appearance, both as regards person and dress. The bath accommodation is very ample in the male and female wards alike, and is made use of abundantly. To all this provision made for thorough cleanliness and ventilation in all departments of the asylum, must be attributed in a large degree the healthful appearance of the patients; and there must doubtless follow more or less indirectly a correspondingly beneficial effect upon their mental condition. The Register of Patients, in the form required by section 24 of " The Lunatics Act, 1868 " (Schedule 12), which was being written up at the time of my previous inspection, has been duly completed. All the cases from the first opening of the asylum in Canterbury have been transcribed from the old register, which contained substantially all the information required in the new one. The " Case Book " referred to in section 25, seems to require some direction by order in Council as to the form in which it should be kept. Practically, however, the " Medical Journal" supplies pretty near all that the " Case Book " would contain. The whole of the premises and outbuildings were inspected under section 53, also the order and certificates of admission of patients. All the patients were seen at their evening meal, beside being seen during the day in the wards at the several occupations allotted to those capable of engaging in any. The lists under section 56 were examined, and the other documents required ; and full inquiry also under clause 55 as to the care treatment, <fec, of the patients. The copy of the plan of the buildings, required by clause 57 to be hung up in some conspicuous place, is not yet completed. There is, however, nothing complicated about the arrangement of the different rooms, yards, and passages. Any visitor could satisfy himself easily that every portion had been under his notice, or that if there were any place in which patients were concealed, it could not escape his observation, or at least his very strong suspicion. Notwithstanding this, however, lam of opinion that the letter of the Act should be strictly carried out, as soon as a place can be procured. A plan would at once show to every visitor that there is nothing in the asylum about which concealment is desired by the managing authorities. In regard to the dietary, which clause 50 requires should be inquired into by the Inspector, I should state that everything supplied is of good quality. The lower storerooms, kitchen, and scullery are specially noticeable for neatness and perfect cleanliness in all the arrangements. Everything is calculated to ensure the patients' food being served up to them in a sound and palatable condition. I wish to suggest the introduction, for those patients who might prefer it, of brown bread, or at least of bread made from flour of which only the coarsest particles of bran have been sifted out, in lieu of that now used, and made from the very whitest flour. There are abundant medical and chemical reasons for believing that brown bread, or bread made of " seconds " flour, is by far the most wholesome for daily use; at all events it is little likely to be adulterated with unwholesome alum, to make it look white. Whilst I have been acting provisionally as Inspector, several applications have been granted for the delivery to the care of friends of patients who have progressed far towards complete recovery. They have mostly been allowed a month's absence on leave, or trial (under clause 64 of the Act) under the medical officer's certificate. The results have been satisfactory in each case, excepting one, and the patients have not required to be taken back. The friends have all given bond, in £50 penalty, under clause 66. The present inspection was made on a day when there was little possibility of its being expected by the keeper, so that everything was certain to be going in ordinary every day course. Only a few days previously I had made a special visit with His Honor Mr. Justice Gresson, in reference to a patient placed there by his order some months back for curative treatment, under clause 21 of the Act. The patient had been addicted to the excessive use of intoxicating drinks, to the great injury of his health and of his estate, and had been placed in the asylum on friends applying to the Judge. There could be no doubt, from the patient's own admission, of the great benefit to his health which the treatment had effected ; his great complaint was, and it must be conceded to be a very serious one, that there was no place where he could be set apart from those who were actually lunatics. The keeper had made arrangements for this patient messing with the attendants, and not with the lunatics. But it will readily be conceived that any regulation that may tend to keep up an irritating feeling of degradation must greatly tend to retard the cure of this class of patients. Any asylum in which curative treatment is to be undertaken under clause 21, of those addicted to excessive and continued use of intoxicating drinks, ought most unquestionably to be so planned that the patients need not be compelled to occupy the same wards and mess and associate with the ordinary lunatics. This curative treatment, to be successful, seems to require a long term in order that the patients may have the power of self-control thoroughly restored, and his mental faculties so reinvigorated, that on his discharge he may be safely counted on as able to resist temptation. Now, so long as the patient, knowing himself to be sane, feels that in every respect but that of sanity, his position is simply that of any lunatic confined in the asylum, that on visitors arriving there, he will be seen possibly by old acquaintances in the ward with the lunatics, as if he were actually one of them, it is inevitable that his rapid progress towards a sound and vigorous state of health will be checked, and his arrival at a right feeling as to the moral probation he has been