The Asylum at Pau, a Self-supporting Public Asylum

Extract

The Asile St. Luc at Pau is indeed an Institution which deserves to have its story told. Through the kindness of the authorities this story is now for the first time made public. It is in effect that, starting with a capital of £12,000 and a small farm of some twenty acres, a nearly perfect asylum with 900 inmates and a staff of over 100 assistants has been built up by degrees, now not only self-supporting but last year showing a profit of £2000, spent mostly in structural improvements and additions and in the purchase of adjoining land. The Medical Superintendent has a free hand, being responsible only to the Conseil-Général of the Department, who, as they find him no funds, merely exercise a benevolent supervision. How such a satisfactory state of affairs has been brought about it is the purpose of the present article to briefly indicate, by way of an object lesson in asylum management.