VPRS 18156 Outward Letter Books

This series consists of books containing letterpress copies of outward correspondence relating to individual patients at Beechworth Asylum, Hospital for the Insane and Mental Hospital (VA 2842). The Outward Letter Books are in the form of small bound volumes. There is a gap in the date sequence which would presumably be filled by additional registers which have not yet been located. Much of the correspondence is signed by the Medical Superintendent and addressed to families or next of kin of the patients. The correspondence relates to matters such as updates on patient's condition and arrangements for trial leave for a patient. In the case of much of the correspondence in the first volume in this series, the recipient is not known as the letter itself did not contain addressee details. Most of the letters pressed into the second volume do contain addressee details. By about 1912, the first typed entries appear, as do inked templates or stamps which have been letter pressed. These templates most often appear in the form of patient returns. These returns are regular reports detailing those patients received, discharged, absent on trial, escaped and returned from trial. They are addressed to the Master in Lunacy and signed by the Medical Superintendent of the hospital.