Public Asylum Reports for 1873

Newcastle-on-Tyne.—Ninth Annual Report.—Mr. Wickham enters into the following defence of Australian tinned meats, which they, perhaps, hardly required:—“The Australian tinned meats, which are now freely used, at first met with much opposition, and, even now, a few of the more ill-humoured patients object to them. To some of the better disposed ones the flavour is at first a little disagreeable, but the same may be said of fairly intelligent people outside, and they are so very few here that it is impossible to consider them in the arrangement of a diet table. As for its nutritious qualities, I have only to say that the patients eating it (excluding those suffering from wasting diseases) gain, or at least retain, their weight. The recovery rate for the three years I have held office has been 45 9 per cent. as against 33 5 per cent. during the previous five years, and the death rate has been steadily decreasing, while the necessity for ordering extras for the sick is reduced to the very lowest minimum. The Australian meat has been largely used during that time, and, though I do not wish to ascribe these satisfactory results to its agency, it must be apparent that it has not interfered with the primary objects of the institution.”