Hi Folks, Some may already know these words, but as they crop up fairly frequently: "Pthsis" should be Phthisis, is now called tuberculosis, usually of the lungs. "Hematopsis" should be Haemoptysis. This is coughing up blood and is associated with TB, as well as many other conditions. One could therefore, summise that the "Lunatic Asylum, Powick," was also being used as an Infectious Diseases Hospital, or Sanitarium. Somebody more knowledgeable than myself may know better, but I would say that the average alcoholic in those days would be "left on the streets" or at home, and only in the last stages of withdrawal or encephalopathy might someone be admitted. Hard times indeed. -- Mike Yegwart Bromsgrove Branch Chairman BMSGH bmsgh.org