The West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum
7. Edith Annie Craven
The notes written about patients can seem strange or cruel today. In Book 60 a five- year old girl called Edith Annie Craven was admitted due to epilepsy and separated from her parents. They left her in the asylum but came back for her after five days. Edith was epileptic and would have had seizures. Her case notes describe her as dejected and restless, climbing on tables and chairs and 'throwing herself on the floor in a passion when displeased.' A doctor diagnoses her with 'idiocy' and states that her case is 'hopeless'.
8. Post-natal depression and the menopause
Reasons for admittance were varied and some of the women's symptoms we would now recognise as post-natal depression or the menopause. Ann Forrest a housewife from Batley was in the asylum for 2 ½ years with the cause of her illness being the "change of life". She appears melancholy and dejected and says that her husband is trying to poison her. In 1832 Sarah Drabble was admitted aged 37 and the mother of eighteen children. She is described as 'distracted in mind' and in a "low desponding state" due to her recent pregnancy and stays in the asylum for three months. |
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