LYING-IN HOSPITAL, For poor Married Women. This compaffionate inftitution was first opened in Rosemary-lane, October 1, 1760. The hospital is fituated in a retired fpot, healthy and airy, and very fuitable for the purpose. The accommodations, attention, and delicacy towards the patients, are, like the other humane inftitutions of Newcastle, laudable and exemplary. This is over the front door:--Licensed for the public reception of pregnant women, pursuant to an act of parliament paffed in the 13th year of the reign of George the third. On the inner fide of the main door there is an infcription over a charity-box, truly appofite: "BECAUSE THERE WAS NO ROOM FOR HER IN THE INN." The following is the establishment. The rules in general are fimilar to thofe of the other charitable inftitutions, but upon a fmaller fcale. Women are to be recommended by fubfcribers, and muft produce certificates of their marriage. It fuddenly taken ill, the matron muft attend them at their own habitations, or there is a chair provided by the charity to convey them to the hofpital. The phyfician and furgeon, both skilled in midwifery, are to deliver the women in all difficult cafes, inftruct the midwives, and act in their refpective capacities. The matron must be a midwife, and deliver in ordinary cafes. The number admitted fince the firft opening to the prefent time amounts to upwards of 2,000. In the year 1761, a fimilar charity was inftituted for poor lying-in women at their own houfes in Newcastle and Gateshead. They enjoy the aid of the midwife in ordinary cafes; and in cafes difficult and dangerous, two furgeons attend. They have every neceffary fupport during the month, with fome pecuniary gratuity to aid the family while the mother is thus incapacitated. It pains humanity to be informed, that, owing to the death of feveral of the principal fubfcribers, &c. and the late heavy preffures, the funds are in a languishing state. Ye bounteous and liberal-minded fair ones, remember "your fifters of low degree!" and relieve the wants of their poor, helpless, young families, when in a flate, which, however painful, it is the wifh and pride of every female to be. "Give me children, or I die!" faid one of your fex in ancient times. She obtained her with, and died in confequence! The greatest of the patriarchs entertained angels unawares. You, by kind relief, may be the means of bringing a future NEWTON or a LOCKE into the world, to be the ornaments of their admiring country. FRIEND. FRIENDLESS POOR SOCIETY. A benevolent inftitution was formed in this town in the year 1797, the object of which is to afford relief to the friendless poor, and to diffeminate the principles of virtue and religion among the lower orders of the people. It is chiefly patronized by the diffenting minifters; but we are forry to say, that its funds are not in fo flourishing a ftate, as fuch a truly laudable fociety merits. Their place of meeting is at the Baptift chapel, Tuthil-ftairs. LUNATIC ASYLUMS. From the hospitals of those labouring under the afflictions of the body, we come to the defcription of those appropriated to fuch as are overwhelmed with the infinitely worse disorder of the mind. Babylon, Perfepolis, Palmyra, in ruins; their palaces, temples, stately columns, overthrown in duft, are not, to the fympathifing eye, a fight fo afflicting, as the ruins of the buman intellect!+ October 7, 1765, it having been reprefented to the corporation of Newcastle upon Tyne, that a piece of ground Dr. Charteris, in his admirable fermon on ALMS, obferves, that Dean Swift, feeling in himself fymptoms of approaching lunacy, laid out twelve thousand pounds, which he had faved, on endowing an hospital for fuch as fhould be afflicted with this frightful calamity. The celebrated Dr. Young tells us, in his Conje&ures on Original Compofition, that Addison, Pope, and himfelf, being in Ireland, on a vifit to the dean, and taking a walk out with him to a field, they obferved him fall behind them for an unusual time, and "I going back," fays Dr. Young, "found him like a statue with his eyes fixed upon a tree blafted at the top." ground was wanted for the fite of an hofpital, intended to be erected in or near to that town, for lunatics belonging to the counties of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle, the Warden's Clofe, a field without the walls of the town, between Newgate and Weftgate, having been judged the moft proper fituation for it, a committee of the common-council was appointed to portion off a part thereof for that purpose; upon whofe report that they had measured and flaked out a plot of ground for the fite of the intended hofpital, the corporation ordered a leafe to be granted in truft from the Christmas-day following, for the term of ninety-nine years, under an annual rent of two fhillings and fixpence as alfo leave for a paffage into Gallowgate for the convenience of the faid hofpital.---Common-council books. This building is in a retired fituation, airy and healthful. The conveniences are numerous; the treatment of the unhappy patients humane, and suitable to their fituations; from whence many have eturned perfectly recovered. It is under the direction of Robert Wood, M. D. Another, named Belgrove, (formerly St. Luke's) upon a smaller fcale, is erected on the Leazes, and is under the management of J. Steavenfon, M. D. top." A third "I fhall be like that tree," faid he, with great emotion; "I fhall die at top!" And foon after, he was removed, for incurable lunacy, to that very hofpital, which he had humanely founded for others!-where, painful to relate! he was fhewn to the gazing fpectators for fixpence a-piece! The monster of a keeper, pointing at him, who was perhaps the most brilliant wit, and, in ferious fubjects, the most correct writer of his age, now ftaring at the beholders with a hideous afpect; "That maniac," faid he," is Dean Swift!" A third hofpital of the fame kind is built on the edge of Gateshead common, at Benfham, and is directed by Robert Wood, M. D. At all thefe hofpitals the patients are treated with fkill and humanity. Without meaning the leaft offence to the gentlemen who conduct the houfes of this defcription here, of whom we have a very high opinion, we cannot help obferving, in this place, that the plan adopted by Dr. Hunter, of York, in the treatment of maniacs, which has been fo eminently fuccessful, is well worthy attention, and, we will venture to add, imitation, as it appears to be founded on an intimate acquaintance with the nature of the human mind. His method, we believe, differs effentially from that of most others. Relinquithing all coercive meafures, and carefully removing from the unhappy patient all appearance of contraint, he affifts their return to reafon by a mild and gentle treatment. So numerous are the flages, and fo highly diverfified the appearances of this melancholy diforder, that to attempt a definition or defcription of it would include a vaft portion of the human race,-few, very few of whom have the benefit of medical aid; but, were this mode of treatment generally adopted by thofe connected with them, might we not expect that their number would be greatly reduced? that the laft fad itage, when the patient is become totally unfit for commerce with his fpecies, might be frequently averted; and medical affiftance, in a great meafure, rendered unneceffary? THE BATHS. Man is not an aquatic animal: and yet, to have accompanied captain Cook, in his voyages in the fouthern X x |