catherine batchelor

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Housewife Catherine Batchelor lived in Claines, Worcester, and had eleven children when she was admitted to Worcester City and County Pauper Lunatic Asylum on Tuesday 4 January 1876. Below is a short breakdown of her condition, based on her notes, in the order of when they were written using the phraseology and terminology of the time.

Before admission she had been weak and feeble for about 20 years, and the reason for her admission was given as “mental debility”. She is described as being low and depressed, obstinate and perverse. She occasionally refused food, would not take medicines - believing they were poisoned - and she thought that her friends wanted to ‘get rid of her’. Her notes record that she was quiet, with a mind occupied by certain delusions, believing that other people on her ward were determined to cut her to pieces. She was apparently incapable of concentrating on any work or amusement.

She is noted as suffering from melancholia and acute bronchitis with attacks of syncope*. She was confined to her bed and given stimulating medicines but still refused her food and despite treatment became weaker.

She died on Thursday 5 July 1877 of chronic bronchitis and acute melancholia accentuated by an unwillingness to take food.

* The medical term for passing out or fainting due to a drop in blood pressure, a drop in heart rate, or changes in the amount of blood in an area of the body.

Research by Maddie Hale, 2021.