Norwich,
January, 1897.
THE IDIOT;
HIS PLACE IN CREATION,
AND
HIS CLAIMS ON SOCIETY.
As Consulting Physician to the Eastern Counties' Asylum for Idiots, it is my privilege to advocate the claims of one of the most important charities connected with the Eastern District of England, and which, as such, is calculated to excite an especial interest amongst the philanthropists of East Anglia.
The Eastern Counties' Asylum for Idiots is an institution founded specially for the reception of patients from Norfolk and the three other Eastern Counties, just in the same way as the Royal Albert Asylum, at Lancaster, is intended for patients from the seven northern counties. It is, therefore, essentially an East Anglian Charity, and I dwell especially on this point, because, being situated at Colchester, I think there is an impression in certain quarters, that this institution is less intimately connected with this locality than some other charities, the claims of which are periodically brought under our notice. I feel that the managing body themselves have been to blame for this impression, from having in the first instance adopted the ill-advised name of Essex Hall—a name, however, now abandoned, as tending to convey the impression that it was an Essex charity, whereas, as I have before said, it is an institution intended for the care and treatment of Idiots from the four Eastern Counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, and Essex.
I have so often been called upon to plead the cause of this charity before a Norfolk audience, that I should have preferred that some other person had been selected to represent the Asylum at this meeting; for when the subject of the appeal is always the same, it is difficult to prevent one's thoughts from occasionally running in a similar channel as on former occasions; the Board of Directors having, however, invited me to act as one of their deputation, I acceded to their request with the greater readiness, as it affords me the opportunity, on the part of the authorities of the Asylum, of expressing our grateful thanks to his Grace the Duke of Norfolk for the honour he has done us by his presence here to-day, thus evincing the interest he takes in the charitable institutions of the county, by consenting to preside over a public meeting in the historical city of Norwich.