Eleventh Annual Report of the Trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester

Boston, Massachusetts: Dutton and Wentworth, State Printers, 1844. Very good. Some spotting, toning. Lacking covers.. Eleventh annual report of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester, with valuable information about patient demographics. Admissions, discharges, deaths, and average number of patients is reported, as well as provisions and expenses. However, the most valuable section of this report is the 20-page chart of demographic data provided for the year's patients, charting the following information: patient no.; time of admission; sex; marital status; "supposed cause" (of insanity); duration of admission; by whom committed; time spent in hospital; discharged or remaining; current state (improved or stationary); and misc. remarks ("foreigner", "hereditary", "suicidal", "pauper"). Common entries for the "supposed cause" of admission include the following: religious; intemperance; unknown; masturbation; ill health; "domestic affliction"; snuff and tobacco (i.e. addiction); "failure in business"; "political excitement"; "Family trouble"; sleepwalking; Millerism; "jealousy"; "love affair"; "puerperal" (e.g. post-partum depression); female afflictions (e.g. amenorrhea); and "Animal magnetism". The 50-year-old woman admitted for a "love affair" is rather disturbing and raises questions about why some women were admitted to these institutions. Other statistics kept include occupations of patients (farmers and unemployed females most common) and statistics as compared to peer institutions. Single vol. (8.5" by 5.5"), pp. 109, [3], sometime disbound. Note the rare examples of double printing errors on pp. 10-11 and 14-15. The Worcester Lunatic Asylum was founded in 1833, and was a pioneer in the field of mental health treatment. It was almost immediately filled to capacity, and "Over the next decades, administrators would continuously entreat the state legislature for funds to construct additional space for patients, as well as separate accommodations for "imbeciles," the violently insane, African Americans, and immigrants...The Worcester State Hospital would continue to operate in a state of worsening crowding and dereliction" after the 1850s (worcesterhistorical.com).