97 Comments Posted by Kate

So finally gave in and asked my mum about this one. She says she has never seen one exactly like this but says it resembles the sort of traction used in patients with severe injuries requiring complete immobiliy. The dial thing at the top is where the pulley system was centred . She did note however that the gentleman in the picture is not situated on it correctly and the original padding is missing. The splayed leg position would be for hip fractures, the straight up arm position would be for forearm traction etc etc.

This is a lecture hall. The blank space at the front is where the blackboard would go. I spent many an hour in rooms just like these, of course in those halls not every square inch was occupied by a desk. They've obviously shoved every seat they could find in here, either that or they had the habit of catapulting students to their desks.

Not to be a clever clogs but I learned this translation a bit differently. We learned this to translate as Let idle talk be silenced. Let laughter be banished. Here is the place where death delights to succour life.

Also worth mentioning "Taceant colloquia.
Effugiat risus." is actually a shortening of the original line which reads Praesent aegroto taceant colloquia, effugiat risus, namque omnia dominatur morbus. Which translates into:In the presence of the sick, all conversation should cease, laughter should disappear, because disease reigns over all.

A variation of this phrase is to be found in anatomy suites and autopsy theatres. I myself have seen may different forms of this.

More importantly, what on earth did they eat to produce enough crap to paint with? My vote is for one too many lamb kebabs.

We had cabinets just like these in my primary school. We kept our brollies and such in them. Its a bit creepy to see the same sorts of cabinets in a psych facility on a different continent. Of course this same school had inkwells in the desks, black out curtains, and a separate entrance for boys and girls. Rural villages aren't known for their up to the date renovations.

Ahhhh yes Lynne, when you going to pop by to see my new manor house Ive purchased with my spoils? Though we should have steered away from the mental health field and focused on bogus weight loss schemes. Damn!

One has to remember as well that these patients were treated with what the medical community had access to. There were no psychotropic drugs like what we have now. Doctors essentially tried to treat these patients through non-biochemical means such as hydrotherapy and isolation. When I see these images I do not feel pity or shame for the lives that the patients lived in these institutions. I see the amazing improvements we have made in the realm of psychiatric medicine in such a short period of time. The very people who would have been locked in an attic or smothered in their sleep as children can now live semi-productive lives in regular society. People like my mum who worked with these people loved them and cared for them and sought to make their existence easier. Even though they were surrounded by bars and cages they were treated with respect as the humans they were. Of course there are always people who are coarse and careless of the feelings of others and abuse those in their care, however, they certainly were a minority rather than the majority.

Twug, I know Motts answered your question already but to add to it, you have to remember that these were areas that the general public did not see. My mum worked in a state hospital in NY in the 60's. There was lots of woodwork, plasterwork and tiling were placed in the general rooms that patients family had access too. Most often the patient rooms, corridors, and day rooms were stark and to the point. Not a lot of effort was placed in making these places decorative. There were mostly plaster covered walls without a great deal of wood or brick. This is why these rooms tend to decay faster than other areas.

In uni I had a lecturer who remembered these machines when he did rotations. He would tell us that the whistling of these machines in a dark ward at night was one of the creepiest things he had ever heard.

Its a giant autoclave. They normally have a carriage/sliding element that can be drawn out of the apparatus. This particular one is so large because its laboratory -scale. In the old lab I worked in, there was one that was so large that you could easily put a SmartCar in it. It was massive.

Wax paper is often used in labs dealing with cell cultures. Especially labs using PVA as it prevents cell adhesion. This would fit with the room having the appearance of a morgue but without the table.

I'm personally thinking thank god. I can't tell you the number of times I'm in the lift and thinking corrrrr I could go for a loo in here.

Lynne is right, its a surgical aspirator. The modern ones arent far off from this one.

God, I'm slow! It took me a minute to realize those were really feet!

Twug~ It's Christmas Day and I actually have one of my girls here with me. I brought her home for the holiday because I couldn't take the idea of her being alone at a residential. And I'm headed to Brightside later to visit all six units! I'm such a sucker...