The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-03-25
A New Insane Hospital.

Having noticed your leader Of the Goth inst,
under the heading The States opportunity"
il has occurred to me, while admitting the force
aud correctness Of your observations generally,
that some additional suggestions may not be
out Of place while the subject is still fresh in
the minds Of your readers.
IL is undoubtedly true that the conviction in
the minds Of the last legislature that new
hospital for the insane, whenever IL shall be
built, should be located at some place other
than Augusta. is largely shared in by their con-
stituents. and perhaps this conviction is aided
in no small degree by lurking suspicion
that the management of the Augusta
institution is not ia all respects what
ID should be. But whether there is just
cause for such a suspicion is not altogether
matter Of absolute certainty. Doubtless, pa
tients often provoke and receive rough treat
ment at the hands OF attendants. Few of us,
whose minds have DOT received professional
bias, / trust would agree with DIR. Ray
and Others, whose lives have been spent in
charge of these institutions, that asylums for
the insane, or the persons entrusted with their
management are necessarily perfect in all re-
spscts 1t is my own opinion, however, based
upon a somewhat careful observation lat time
when 1 took an interest in observing carefully
that the institution at Augusta, under the
management of Dr. Harlow, is as well and hu-
namely conducted as its overcrowded limits
will allow. and that when the number of its in
mates is reduced to the reasonable capacity of
the building, it will then be all that could be
desired of single institution.
p,,txp l,ok% AL.
out? The answer is obvious; and the public
mind in the aggregate, is already made up that
additional accommodations will be required.
Hence, the only remaining, and really open
question, is that of location.
The suggestion that the United States Marine
Hospital in Deering-not in Cape Elizabeth
will fall into disuse on the opening of the Maine
General Hospital in Portland, and may then be
purchased by our State for triflng sum, was
doubtless well meant, but it gives rise to
unpleasant reflections. 1t reminds us of the
policy the State has usually pursued in locating
Its institutions; begging paltry sums from
towns and individuals when the public good
was to be subserved while, it gave away it's best
selling lands to specializing projectors of rail-
roads and innumerable academies. A large and
really wealthy State should not BE- cramped in
its vital interests by mere within of economy.
When the questions of necessity and ability
are las in this instance) alike settled it only
diciously expended, and to this end little
Christian, or indeed pagan, honesty, on the
part of the contracting parties. would save any
needless outlay of pnblic money, whenever a
public building is to be erected and paid for out
of the public treasury.
The situation of the Maine Hospital son an
eminence overlooking the ocean," is at once
picturesque and suggestive of its design as a
l,A,S Go, r.o Oh l.I1Io
er cheaply it may be bought of the general gov
eminent, it does not follow as a matter of
course, that this hospital would be adapted Ell
Their in situation or construction, to the needs
OF patients laboring under the most to be de-
plored of all diseases.
1t is greatly to be hoped that in selecting the
situation for new insane asylum, the State
will profit by the example of Massachusetts
and send out its locating committee to exam
inc sites with especial reference to fitness first
and cheapness afterward, Economy, of course
is not to be disregarded; but if in this matter
cheapness alone is to be made the test, the ar
gument that was used last winter in favor of
locating at Augusta, comes up with redoubled
force. 1t was then said that the State had land
enough; and in respect to quantity this was
and still is true. So, that to dispose of the in-
sane cheaply, it is rot necessary to auction
them off, since they may be transported to
some of the still unsettled townships and thus
made to form colony by themselves, after the
manner in which our neighbors of the Sand
witch Islands treat their lepers.
The good people of the State, however, will
doubtless be disposed to treat this matter with
spirit of candor and seriousness becoming its
importance. 1t will be conceded that the first
object of a hospital is the care, or at least the
relief, of its diseased inmates; and diseases of
the mind especially can only be successfully
dealt with in situation favorable to the Pc
culiar treatment which they require. 1t is of
the first Importance therefore that the site
OF an insane asylum be both healthful and
pleasant, surrounded by attractive landscapes
and affording its inmates without stint air
pure and unmIxed with the noxious exhala-
tons of low and swampy lands or stagnant
pools, and free from the gases that continually
arise from the furnace and forge of the manu-
featuring town; while yet there is always an
abundant supply of pure fresh water, that
other God-given panacea for every durable dis
ease
For situation such as this, outside of the
limits of the crowded city, yet near a railroad
centre and easy OF access from all quarters of
the State, the State can well afford to nav a
fair price.
As it is not my purpose to discuss the mer-
its of any particular locality leave the subject
here, hoping that at a time when statistics show
that in the farming counties of Massachusetts,
there is larger percentage of insanity, than in
Essex and Middlesex where the manufacturing
towns are situated it will receive from others
the attention to which it is entitled in an ag-
rlcultnral state like ours; and that free ex-y
change of views on a matter of so much impor-
lance may be had through the public prints