The money raised from the sale of oakum and baskets provided for two sets of clothing per person. The third was the manufacturing of gutta percha (nutmeg) sheets for surgical purposes to be sold to the Medical Board at Calcutta at ten percent below market rate. This failed because the Board found better quality ones could be produced elsewhere. Additionally, Dr Oxley introduced a system of non-restraint and attempted to change the Hospital's public image. But the latter was to no avail due to prevalent misconceptions. Throughout the colonial period, "isolation of the insane with proper justification was then thought necessary and custodial care was the mainstay of the day". Treatments were administered under the belief that mental illness was caused by "a foreign body that had to be expelled from the body". Hence, all lunatics were forced to take purgatives which induced diarrhoea and vomiting once every month, regardless of their physical condition. For those who were "under peculiar excitement" (Ng 2001a, p. 18), "soothing medicines" (Ng 2001a, p. 18) were given and they were locked in their cells without restraints.  1847 and 1848 were uneventful save for the persisting shortage of accommodation at the Hospital (Lee 1978, p. 197). Under these circumstances, Dr Oxley was forced to discharge "harmless" patients to make room for more "dangerous" ones (Lee 1978, p. 197). Act IV of 1849 worsened the overcrowding (Lee 1978, p. 198). It stated that people who broke the law when of unsound mind would not be sent to jail but to the Hospital instead (Lee 1978, p. 198). This was Singapore's first legislation regarding the mentally ill, and the first person committed under the Act was Lim Say Soon who was charged for murder on 21 August 1848 (Lee 1978, p. 198). Since Dr Oxley's complaints about the overcrowding were ignored, on 11 April 1849, he wrote to absolve his staff from blame should anything untoward happen if more people were sent to the Hospital (Lee 1978, p. 198). When the Grand Jury looked into the issue on 24 April 1850 following a spate of contagious skin disease in the Hospital, Dr Oxley took the chance to reiterate his point and highlight the poor living conditions at the Hospital (Lee 1978, p. 198). As a result, on 17 May 1850, the Governor gave orders for the Hospital to be disinfected as a temporary measure and that plans for a new extension to be submitted (Lee 1978, p. 198).