The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-28
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2s, 1870.
A QUESTION or INSANITY.

the very Objectionable manner in which our
insane hospitals are managed. Lewis Z.
Rosenberg, a patient of DIR. Kirkbrides at
the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane,
asked the Court to interfere, and release him
from what he considered an unwarrantable
and improper confinement, and the same old
story that has been repeated so often was
gone over again in this instance. Mr.. Rosen-
berg has property which greedy relatives are
anxious to obtain from him, and as he is in
bad health confinement in lunatic asylum
is found to be the easiest way of getting rid
of him. Mr.. Rosenberg is German by
birth, and citizen of Ohio where he was de-
clared non conp0s me1ttis bya commission, and
was placed in an asylum. The burning Of
this establishment was made the pretext for
bringing him many hundred miles away from
bis home, and incarcerating him in the hos
pital over which DR.. Kirkbride presides, not
withstanding the fact that there are other
asylums in Ohio that would have received
him. There appears to have been no great
difficulty in inducing DIR. Kirkbride to receive
him as a patient, although that gentleman,
when called upon to testify, knew absolutely
nothing about the case except what he had
heard from others. DIR. Jones, under whose
immediate care Mr.. Rosenberg was placed,
scarcely knew more than his chief, and Judge
Allison, in summing up the testimony of the
two physicians, said that it was no evidence
at all, and without deciding the case, as nei-
ther side had presented sufficient testimony,
he ordered that Mr.. Rosenberg should have
the medical attendance he desired, and such
other treatment as his physical condition
seemed 10 demand.
The alleged insane man when placed upon
the witness stand told a very straight story,
and declared that he was not now and that
he never had been insane. He had lost his
health some years ago while in the Arctic
regions, and was now suffering from con-
sumption. With regard to the Ohio COM
mission that originally declared him insane.
he asserted that the Probate Judge, under
the laws of that State, is little better than
Justice of the peace; he was a man of but
little intelligence, and as a citizen of Ohio
Mr.. Rosenburg claimed that no such magis-
trate, nor his committee, had power or right
to send him out of the State where he could
better have his case adjudicated. Whether Mr..
Rosenburg be insane or not, his reasoning in
this point is certainly correct, and no disinte-
rested person will dispute it. He further
stated however, that he had been confined
originally in the asylum at Newburg, Ohio,
but was discharged, on his own application,
at the first visit of the State Inspector, who,
by letter, pronounced his confinement an out
rage. AS the case now stands between the
officers of the Pennsylvania Hopital for the
Insane and this patient, the latter certainly
has the best of it, and one thing is proven
very conclusively, namely, that patients are
received by Doctors Kirkbride and Jones,
and treated as if insane, upon entirely insult
cient evidence. Notwithstanding all that has
been said of late about the manage
ment of this hospital, and the instances
of wrongful confinement that have
been made known to the public,
it is evident that there is no obstacle what
ever to the incarceration of anybody who
may be troublesome to friends or relatives on
any account. The physicians of the hospital
will take anybody who can pay their charges,
on any kind of certificate, and presume as
a matter of course that whoever is sent to
them must of necessity be insane. They are
the plant tools of schemers who desire to
get possession of property by taking this
method of getting the rightful possessor out
of the way, and whoever can obtain the sig
nature of somebody calling himself physi-
clan can procure the incarceration of an
Objectionable person without any questions
being asked by Doctors Kirkbride and Jones.
Such condition of affairs is simply outra-
geous, and calls imperatively for some change
in the laws by which sane persons can be
protected from this fearful imprisonment.
In no case that has been brought before the
courts lately have the physicians of the hos
pital been able to give satisfactory reasons
for the confinement of the patients demand
ing release. They appear to know nothing
whatever of their actual mental condition
and from their testimony on the witness
stand it would seem that they consider them
selves as nothing more nor less than common
jailers, whose duty it is to hold fast to every
person that is brought to them, provided thu
board bills are paid punctually. 1t is Ger
tainly time that this sort of thing was brough
TO an end and some reasonable assurance
given that the possession of wealth will no
of itself be considered an evidence of insanity
that will render the tender care of Doctor
Kirkbride and Jones necessary.
IT IL announced that ex- Congressman Whit
has L.. - l.. ok.k n,