Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-04-10
OUR rREArmEsr OF THE INSANE.


comparatively short period the lunatic was
consigned, and which, even at the present
day, is in some places scarcely lessened.
Dr. Connolly, whose advanced ideas of
science and humanity led to the uniform
adoption in England of the "non.restraint
system of treatment, speaking only thirty
| few physicians of education were to be
found, until a recent period, devoting
themselves to mental disorders Those
occupied in asylums were chiefly dis
| tingrished by an eccentricity and rough
ness which, uniting them for other pro-
fessional vocatiens, made them willing to
undertake to treat mad people. By such
persons, ill-educated, prejudiced, and with
out any resources but methods of violence,
and who never studied the forms and treat
ment of mental disorders, all attempts to
ameliorate the condition of the insane were
bitterly and unscrupulously opposed with
every effort and every contrivance OF vul-
gar minds. Meantime, the outside walls OF
an asylum were regarded with awe; the
shrieks issuing from 1t made night hldeous
the frantic creatures inclosed in their dens
furnished appalling subjects for the artist
or the novelist; squalor and dirt, and fam
inc and ferocity were everywhere to be
met with" And now in the latter half of
the nineteenth century we find that the
methods which Connolly so vigorously de-
nounced, and to the abolition of which he
gave his life, are in full use in almost every
asylum in the United States; that the at
tempts to improve the condition of the in
sane are opposed, as in his day, by those
who have charge Of them; that dens are
still in existence, chains still employed,
blows still inflicted, systematic flogging still
practiced, the strait jacket still used as
means of restraint; and that these agen-
cies of subsection are supplemented by
the Utica crib, an apparatus not only
inhuman, but one which no person pos
sessing competent knowledge OF the
physiology of the brain and the pathology
Of insanity would venture to introduce
into the wards of lunatic asylum.
Within about a year four hornicides oc-
Cured in the New York City lunatic asy
lum on Wards Island. In one of these
patient was beaten to death by an attend
ant in another. an attendant was killed
| by patient; in the third, patient was
thrown off the wharf and drowned by an
other patient and in the fourth, one luna
| tic was ordered to give hot bath to an
other, not only insane, but paralyzed. After
| getting him into the bath-tub he turned on
| the hot water and walked away, leaving
| the poor wretch actually to be boiled to
| death. In the asylum at st. Peter, Mime
sofa, patient who refused to eat had his
mouth filled with food by a nurse, and the
mess pushed down into his stomach with
the handle of knife, while another nurse
held HIM down. On one occasion he ran
away, yelling that they wanted to kill him.
He was caught and laid on bench one
attendant held his hands, and sat across
his body another attendant and a patient
helped to hold him his mouth was plugged
to prevent his closing it. The food (soup)
was poured in from pitcher his breath
was heard to ''gurge" as the soup went
into his windpipe, and in five minutes he
was dead.
Last winter rumors in regard to the bad
management of the Longview Asylum, in
! Ohio, became so prevalent that the Legis-
lature appointed committee to investigate
them. From the report made on the SUBJ
iect | make the following extract: g Ac-
cording to the testimony of several eye
witnesses, punishment frequently and
sometimes gleefully resorted to by attend
ants in this asylum is one known as taking
down Taking down, in the words of
the testimony, consists in tripping or
throwing the patient to the floor, holding
her down flor taking down is female
punishment, the men being usually knocked
down. with the knee on the chest, while
another employee gags the patient, and still
another holds the patients hands. The
patient is held down till she is quite weak
and exhausted, becomes purple in the face,
and the breath is almost gone. Another
punishment is to make spread
eagle of a patient. This consists
in stripping a patient to nakedness, and
making attendants whip him with wet
towels. This is punishment inflicted for
a refusal to work 1t is described as very
painful and is practised because it leaves
no marks. There is testimony as to duck
ing, kicking, beating, black eyes, and other
marks of cruelty. 1t is in evidence that
weak patients are overworked, and all in
mates have not been properly fed and cared
for. Hard work has been needlessly COM
PEELED in room in which the mercury
stood at 1907. The use of cribs and the
strong room is shown. Loathsome ver-
min in loathsome numbers have been al
lowed to accumulate upon the bedding, the
apparel, and the person of patients. All
of these things and others told with pain
full plainness is the testimony that is made
part of this report"
Of the BlackwelPs Island Asylum in
New York City, committee of the same
Board reported last summer that, "This
asylum continues to be source of the
greatest anxiety to us. We see that there
is not proper provision for the patients,
and we know that their surroundings must
of necessity increase and prolong the dis
ease under which they are suffering and
yet we are quite powerless to effect any
permanent improvement. The Lodge and
Retreat, where violent cases are confined,
are buildings quite unfit for any human
beings and yet 200 insane women are shut
up in them. The cells in which the pa
tients sleep are, in both of the institutions,
lighted only by transoms over the doors.
At night, when the patients spend nearly
twelve hours closely shut up in these cells,
they must be pitch dark and the air,
which is not fresh even in the middle of
the day, must be poisonous. In the Re-
treat many of the cells measuring seven
feet six inches by twelve feet nine inches
by twelve feet) contain no beds; and ON one
occasionlately, when thenurseopenedo one of
these cells in the morning, she found one
of the patients badly beaten about the
head by her companion. The patients as a
rule have nothing to do all day, and sell
dom 60 out except in the airing courts
bare spaces surrounded by high board
fences. Such circumstances cannot tend
to the calming of an excited brain, but
must rather serve to increase the disease
and fix it upon the patient for life. The
beneficial influence of change to pleas
anter surroundings and even partial en-
ployment has been shown within few
weeks. when number of patients from
the Retreat were transferred to two new
halls in the new building and were sup
piled with work. OF the six physicians
now in the asylum, only one had had any
experience in the treatment of the insane
before entering this institution. The
Younger men of course only enter the asy-
| Inn, for the f,urDose of painiuo experience: