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Archiver > ENG-SURREY > 1999-08 > 0935174971


From: "Peter Davies" <>
Subject: Re: 2000 in ASYLUM
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 19:49:31 +0100


Dear Marg,
Occasionally there was a ray of hope for such people. My cousin Rose Maher
was deaf and dumb and her life followed roughly along these lines:-



-----Original Message-----
From: Marg Cambridge <>
To: <>
Date: Friday 20 August 1999 16:06
Subject: 2000 in ASYLUM


>Hello Listers:
>
>I accidently came upon something today on the 1881 Census CD that brought
>tears to my eyes. The METROPOLITAN DISTRICT ASYLUM FOR IMBECILES,
>Caterham, Surrey. There were 921 men and 1100 women, ranging in age from
18
>to 86, all diagnosed as lunatic or imbecile. Many of them listed as
>Lunatic, deaf and dumb. Hundreds of them between the ages of 24 and 40.
As
>a retired Registered Nurse it made me think of the treatment and facilities
>available today for family members with brain syndromes or children born
>deaf, and how lucky we are to not have lived in those days. This
facility
>is only one of the many thousands throughout the world that thought there
>was no hope for these people. Thank goodness we have come a long way since
>then.
>
>A question though.........would some of these people have been from other
>parts of England, or would they have been residents of the immediate
>surrounding area?
>
>This is going to be a blue day just thinking about those poor people, the
>conditions of that time period, and the heartbreak it must have caused.
>
>Marg
>Mission, B.C., Canada
>
>
>
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