1887 to 1912 - Living
'An institution for the care and training of feeble-minded children'
Three cottages, a schoolroom, kitchen, &c., were erected at a short distance from the main building of Kew, and opened as an institution for the care and training of feeble-minded children on the 19th May, 1887... I am glad to be able to report that the work is being carried out in a fairly satisfactory manner, and signs of improvement can be noticed in nearly all the children. The school work has been well started, but no arrangements have been made for teaching trades or handicrafts.
James V McCreery, Medical Superintendent, Kew Lunatic Asylum in Report of Inspector of Asylums on the Hospitals for the Insane, Victoria Papers Presented to Parliament, 1888, Vol. III, page 46.
James V McCreery
'Idiocy and Juvenile Insanity in Victoria', Intercolonial Medical Congress of Australasia. Transactions of the Third Session, held in Sydney, New South Wales, September, 1892, pages 666-7.
The education of feeble-minded children naturally divides itself into four parts - physical, mental, moral and learning trades ... The mental faculties are developed in the school, marked improvement being obtained in writing. A few have learned to read simple words; colour, clock, and shop lessons have been found useful, and many of the children can join in simple tunes, which give them much pleasure.
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The means used for physical training are the same as in English schools - light dumb-bells, marching in order, walking on ladder steps, general drill movements for the arms and body, with out-door work in the garden for the boys, and laundry work for the girls.
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As we had no trained teachers of trades the starting of this branch caused much trouble, and it was only last year we were able to make a proper beginning. Fourteen boys are now engaged in making door-mats; we find we can supply all the institutions with these articles. Basket-work was more difficult to learn, but a considerable number of baskets, chairs, couches, &c., have been made. We also hope before long to add brushmaking to our list.
Life in the 1890s
Sir,
I have the honor to report that the Dietary Scale at present in force for the Idiot Asylum is found to be too liberal in the articles Sago, Flour, Oatmeal, Rice & Treacle & not quite liberal enough in Bread and Potatoes, I have therefore drawn up the attached New Scale, which is less costly & complicated, for approval and recommendation for adoption from 1st prox.
I have the honor to be
Sir
Your most obedient servant
Superintendent Kew Lunatic Asylum to Inspector of Lunatic Asylums,
18 July 1895, PROV, VPRS 3992/P, Unit 588, 95/A5204.
© State of Victoria Reproduced with the permission of the Keeper of Public Records, Public Record Office Victoria, Australia.
An approved requisition has also been sent for a dining room at the Idiot Asylum. I would very strongly urge that the work should be carried out at once as the children have now to take their meals in small overcrowded day-rooms under conditions that are unfavourable to their moral and physical wellbeing.
I have the honor to be
Sir ...
Inspector of Asylums to the Under Secretary, 11 Feb 1895, PROV, VPRS 3992/P, Unit 591, 95/B5938.
© State of Victoria Reproduced with the permission of the Reeper of Public Records, Public Record Office Victoria, Australia.
I have the honour to recommend that an officer of the Public Works Department and myself be authorised to examine and report on the present state of the buildings at the Idiot Asylum, and on the additions that would be required to put that institution in a satisfactory condition.
To show how necessary additional buildings are, I may mention that at present the cubic space per patient in the dormitories range from 294 to 458 feet. I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your most obedient Servant
J McCreery
Memo, Inspector of Asylums to Under Secretary, 20 Aug 1895, PROV, VPRS 3992/P, Unit 594, 94/A6725.
© State of Victoria Reproduced with the permission of the Keeper of Public Records, Public Record Office Victoria, Australia.
Epidemics
Typhoid at Kew Asylum
After an interval of six weeks typhoid fever has again made its appearance at the Kew Lunatic Asylum. The town clerk of Kew has received official notification that two of the inmates of the idiot asylum have contracted the disease. The previous outbreak was in the Asylum proper, and the authorities came to the conclusion that the disease could be traced to a defect in the drainage arrangements. This was remedied, and it was hoped that the outbreak was nipped in the bud. The recrudescence of the disease in quite another part of the Asylum, and in a building apart from the main establishment, is a matter which should have the serious attention of the asylum authorities.
Typhoid at Kew Asylum - The Age, 27 June 1907.
Reproduced courtesy The Age.
Admitted January 23rd 1904
Suffers from severe epileptic fits fairly bright between the attacks, attends school.
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14-4-04 Is confined to bed, symptoms of lung disease...
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11-2-05 Attends school & drill, no[t] employed, no marked mental change.
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15-4-07 Wrote to Mrs Miller advising her not to take her child on Trial for a month as she is an Epileptic.
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22-4-07 Father & mother visited today, & decided to leave the girl here.
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11-6-07 Transferred to Hospital annexe as a suspicious case of Typhoid. Abdomen distended, two spots, furred tongue & raised Temperature 102.
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12-6-07 ... Is undoubtedly typhoid. Wrote to the father today & sent in some blood to be examined.
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15-6-07 Temp 104. Abdomen distended. Three fresh spots. Tongue coated. Has Typhoid appearance.
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22-6-07 Had a Haemorrhage yesterday passed a number of clots. Was put on oprum at once, this is to be continued every 4 hours ...
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23-6-07 Temp yesterday 105 was sponged down to 101: no more bleeding ... Wrote to the mother today.
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24-6-07 Slept well nearly all yesterday. At 3p.m. Temp 103 sponged down to 101. Took plenty of nourishment ...
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25-6-07 Temp remains up at 103. Sponged down to 101. Is keeping quiet & taking nourishment well. Blood examination confirms diagnosis of typhoid. Tongue still furred. Wrote to mother today.
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26-6-07 Temp 103, restless, not taking food so well. Still distended. No diarrhoea, no further haemorrhage.
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27-6-07 Temp raised, very restless & talkative, refuses food. Still distended. 30-6-07 Very restless still. Had a fit this morning Temp.103 Wrote the mother.
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2-7-07 Quieter last 24 hours. Sleeping better. Temp 102. Less distended.
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3-7-07 Is to have an Enema of Glycerine today. Temp still raised. Very restless & talkative, had a fit yesterday. Is getting thinner. Pulse feeble. Is to have a tonic. Wrote to the mother today again ...
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4-7-07 Temp 104. Sponged to 101. Chest full of mucous, coughing a good deal Sleeping better. Is on special medicine every 4 hours. Wine [dosage] in the day. Certainly thinner, looks pinched. Tongue very coated.
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5-7-07 Very ill with Broncho-Pneumonia. Telegraphed to mother to come down. Is on Cough medicine [dosage] every two hours. Beef tea, Brandy [dosage] in the day. Wired to the mother to come at once. Taking little food. Fed her by the tube this afternoon at 4. Milk [dosage]. Brandy [dosage]. Breathing very bad all day. Respirations 70. Pulse small & almost imperceptible. Fed by the tube again at 8 p.m. some slight improvement after, but she collapsed at 9 p.m. & died. Parents arrived at 10 p.m.
Extract from Case History, PROV, VPRS 7419/P1, Unit 1, 278, 342.
© State of Victoria Reproduced with the permission of the Keeper of Public Records, Public Record Office Victoria, Australia.
Sir,
I have the honor to report that there is not sufficient accommodation for the female staff at the Idiot Asylum, and as some of the nurses' rooms open off dormitories where patients suffering from tubercle and other diseases sleep, additional rooms are urgently needed. I submit herewith a requisition and plan for a detached nurses' block, and would recommend that it be erected at once out of the rates of the current year. Some of the rooms now occupied by the nurses could be used for children suffering from tubercle, which has been declared a contagious disease.
I have the honor to be
Sir
Your obedt Servant
J McCreery
Inspector of Lunatic Asylums
Inspector of Asylums to Under Secretary, 9 October 1901, PROV, VPRS 3992/P, Unit 859, 1901/010865.
© State of Victoria Reproduced with the permission of the Keeper of Public Records,
Public Record Office Victoria, Australia.
Admitted October 7th 1901
A fairly high class idiot boy.
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1-11-1901 Has been suffering from Influenza, some congestion at back of left Lung
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17-11-1901 Temperature normal morning, rises in the evening
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27-7-1902 Employed in garden work, in fairly good bodily health
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10-1-1903 General health not so good, able to be up and takes food well
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4-6-1903 Health unsatisfactory
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25-11-1903 Examined the boy with Dr Mullen we are of opinion he is suffering from tubercular disease
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1-12-1903 Confined to bed getting weaker
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12-12-1903 Much weaker
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16-12-1903 Frederick ... died at 6 a.m. this day ... Cause of death general tuberculosis
Extract from Case History, PROV, VPRS 7420, Unit 1, 301.
© State of Victoria Reproduced with the permission of the Keeper of Public Records,
Public Record Office Victoria, Australia.
