Thursday, 1 March 2007

New Orleans City Insane Asylum Patients Records

Responsibility for insane patients housed in the City Insane Asylum fell to the City Physician, who was to visit patients at least once a day and to discharge those patients who had sufficiently recovered. This volume contains information on insane patients visited by the City Physician and recommended to the State Asylum.

For each patient, the record includes name, race, sex, age, place of birth, type of insanity and sometimes a description of the patient's behavior.

Mary Prague - Entered Februaryy 23rd, 1869 – native U.S. – Kind of Insanity when she entered – Furious Mania. Does not know her name. Has a bony eminence at the center of the fore-head. Thinks herself to be the Virgin Mary – The lump on her forehead was there when she entered the institution. Might be 43, but probably not.

1 comment(s):

czeltic girl said...

I ran across this entry for a cab driver named Charles Welsh, originally from Ireland:

"Like all Irishmen, he is very witty. But his conversation is incoherent, vulgar, and obcene [sic]. He has been an inveterate drinker, for years back, but his physique bears his age very well. He does not seem to be over 50 or 55 at the utmost. He knows not where are his house and cab, or at least says they are where they are not. If whiskey is mentioned to him, his face radiates with joy, and he becomes talkative."

Regarding the last sentence: Who doesn't? :)

I can't decide if this site is very interesting or terribly depressing. Maybe both. But somehow, I can't stop reading it.