The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-16
KIRKBRIDE'S.


An Answer FROM the Fhysician-IB-Chlef.
'Persons with entirely honest intentions
Gays DR.. Kirkbride in his annual report, some
extracts of which we gave yesterday-"are
often fonnd asking whether sane people are not
frequently, either by mistake or from improper
motives, placed in hospitals for the insane, aud
then restrained of their liberty by those who
have some selfish end to attain by such proceed
iDgs. such a question as this, coming from an
honest inquirer after truth, deserves 10 be
answered. and so far rs Pennsylvania Is con-
cerned, unquestionably can be, and In a mode
that must remove all rational grounds for un-
easness from those who may have entertained
doubts on the subject. / believe / am able to
speak positively of what has occurred in this
institution during the thirty years 1t has been
in operation, and in which period no less than
5196 patients have been under its care; and de-
sire TO place on record my testimony in
regard to this inquiry. In all this
long period, and in all this large number of
patients, have neither known any one whose
mind was not diseased, or who was not recover
ing from attack of insanity, and in a condi-
tion requiring this kind of care to be restrained
Of his or her liberty nor have l detected an in-
clination on the part of the friends of a patient
to make such a use of the institution; which, it
may be added, If attempted, could not have
proved successful, and nowhere else would
have been as soon detected and exposed.
In regard to the state institutions at
Harrisburg and Pittsburg, and the asylum
at Frankford, l have the most undoubted autho-
rity for testifying to the same effect. am well
aware that many cases, regarded by some as
doubtful have been before the courts for adj u
dicaton in regard to a further detention in an
institution, but there has been no one of these,
with which am acquainted, in which experts
could have had the Slightest hesitation
in regard to the original insanity of the
patient; not one in which the
subsequent results of the case did not justify
their opinions; nor one in which any Judge
even when deciding a question of further
residence in the hospital, against the opinion of
its officers, ever intimated doubt as to the in
sanity of the patient when admitted into the
institution. In a single case only was the ques-
tion of insanity left unsettled, owing to the
death of the individual before the conclusion of
the investigation.
There are certain cases of intemperance often
sent to hospitals by direct order of the courts,
or by authority derived from the courts by their
legal guardians or in the usual mode, for their
temporary protection, when unable to take care
of themselves. Many of these, after short stay,
seem to have recovered their natural state of
mind, and are retained only as required in the
original order of the court, until discharged by
due process of law difference of opinion
may exist in regard to how much of this kind of
mental trouble is real insanity or whether ii is
merely a temporary effect from the habit alluded
to. lntemperance is sometimes disease, and
sometimes it is only an effect of insanity-a
symptom of disease. While many physicians
have no hesitation in regarding all these cases
as genuine insanity, there are some in which
the officers of this hospital might entertain a
different opinion and on this account all such,
although coming here under legal process, are
| excluded from the statement on q preceding
page. Many persons, too, dreading an attack of
insanity or suffering from the iDcipieut stage of
it, or from general disordered condition of
the nervous system, ask to have the benefits
of the hospital, but they come to 1t as they
would go elsewhere for medical advice,
and as they would enter an ordinary boarding
house; and they leave it whenever it is their
pleasure to do so; SO that they can hardly be re-
| garded as the ordinary insane, nor can they in
| any sense be said to be restrained of their
| liberty. With these explanations, there are no
| qualifications TO be made to the statement that,
after the most careful inquiry, believe there is
| no ground for the belief that any sane person
| has ever been admitted into and restrained of
| his liberty in any Pennsylvania insttHtion in
tended for the care and treatment of the insane.