The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1880-11-25
MANAGEMENT OF THE INSANE.
AHiut % Our weston management.

MANAGEMENT OF THE INSANE.
AHInl 70 Our weston Management.
sprlnSa6la Rspsbllssn. US IA
This ID a question always up for discus
sion In the United States, and, index, IN
all countries, for the increasing prevalence
Of insanity forces 1t upon the public notice,
even when such occurrences as the burn
ing OF the Minnesota hospital and the
scandal In the Danvers hospital do not
harass and excite the popular mind. The
moralot these things, and Of almost every
thing that takes place Of late In regard to
the insane, 10 this: Beware Of great hos
pItals," LISA faulty system which ex.
Soses 30 fnanyiof theee helpless creatures
al once 10 the risks OF o fire; It Is system
weakened by expansion which breaks
down as the DanveTs hospital system broke
down, last, GUNNER under the long con-
ceaIed guilt Of q SUPERINTENDENT too much
trusted by his official superiors. The DIM
CultieH besettng the recovery OF insane
patients are too great in themselves 70 pc
still further complicated by the necessary
evils OF such an aggregation OF persons
as our great, hospitals now contain
We have wandered widely from the true
path OF hospital management, and our
nest etforte now can do little more than
prevent our overgroWn hospltals nom
making worse the disease they were oullt
at so great cost TO cure, a dim pefcep-
zion Of this fate has fixed the public eye
anxiousIy upon our insane hospitals, and
ais anxiety. will not be satisfied until
measures are taken to correct the existing
defects, against which public officials and
private observers have been protesting
Tor many years. guRt 9&i4t y .olH
This protest has atlast reached the med
zeal profession itself, and Is heard In quar-.
ters where, but few years ago, all was
Quiet and stagnant. Several Of the hospi-
tal superintendent, and notably Drs.
Earle and Banscroft, the TWO most respec'
ted men in the specially in this partot the
country, have come forward 10 say that
the existing practiceiB wrong and must be
reformed. Or. Earle has punctured the
gas. balloon Of hospital statistics, and prov.
ed that they. have hitherto amounted to
nothing, as showing what portion Of the
insane are permanently cured. No ex.
posure Of the long-standtn tallacy that
two-thirds OF the insane may recover could
well BIO more complete than DR.. Earle'E
honest unwilling Of the truth In regard to
the durability Of the insane. a.g yasi -,
IS And now comes forward another group
OF medical men who declare that the
American hospital notions about the re.
straiht Of patients are all wrong-thai
straps, and mutfs and camisoles must be
taken of and laid aside-perhaps burned
mn, as DR.. Shaw burned up the instru'
ments ofrestraint in the Brooklyn asylum
lof which he Is Superintendent. The first
public meeting otthe itNational Associa.
! lion for the Protection Of the Insane,
since its organization in Cleveland last
July, was held In New York on the l1th
inst, and the speakers laid great stress on
4 the disuse Of restraint In hospitals and
asylums DR.. Wilbur, who presided, DR..
George NJ. Beard, who has just returned
from tour OF inspection in Europe, and
Dr.. Z. o. seguin allsspoke with emphasis
Of the abuse Of restraint, the advantage o.
uon-restraint and OF the utility OF EN-
bloyment as q substitute for tying thu
hands and imprisonins the bodies OF In
sane persons. DR.. Beard said the extern
10 which he saw the insane employed II
Europe was to him almost incredible
Out OF $40 persons In one asylum which
he visited, only about 40-1S men and q
women-were too insane to do work
The best EDglish asylums, he added, were
not enormous buildings, but series o
moderate.sized cottages; and it ia believed
that this separation Of the insane, instead
OF herding them together, as We do, Is o
great service In promoting recoveries
Anything that will promote recoyeriet
should be caught at, for just now, In thit
1 country, the ratio OF recoveries Is very
Ilow-not equal to the deaths, here Ii
Massachusetts, even taking the new case
into account. Thus 7the new Wor
cester hospital. among its first adj
missions last year had but 20 recoYeries
while there were Al deaths in the SAINT
class; at the Taunton hospital there Were
thirty.nine recoveries among first. admiE
i sions, and forty deaths. At Danvers the
lrecoyeries outnumbered the deaths OF tbil
class about two to one, but this ispartly be
cause the hospital is'new. The Vermont
hospital at Brattleboro, whose report fol
two years is Just received, shows more
deaths than recoveries-forty-nine deaths
thirty.nine recoveries, in two years. Here
alsoit is to be noted that the aggregate o.
deaths and recoyeries OF Brattleboro-
leighty.fye-is but little more than halt OIL
the new cases or "primary admissions, a.
DR.. Draper calls those patients whose first
commitment was to his asylum. Practi
cally then the increase Of insanity in Yer.
mont is at the rate Of about half OF the new
cases in each year.
The Boston newspapers, always little
behindhand in matters OF this kind, have
Just found out that in Vermont the Grim
inal insane are kept in the same wardE
with the'other inmates OF the Brattleboro
asylum. They have not learned, appa,
rently, that the same disgraceful mixture
Of patients takes place in Massachusetts,
too, where we have seven or eight public
hospitals and asylums, and no one Of
them is set apart for the hundred (more OF
less) criminal insane. The prison Of Fps
wich, now used ID part IS M insane
asylum, ought to be taken for d convict
asylum, and the other hospitals relieved
Of the criminal insane-and some separa-
ton Of this kind has been recommended
by State officials here for more than Is
years. .9u.s sos.
REv! R. R. BUR7s, Of Mauata, Fla, says:
''Tutt's Pills are held in high Tepute ss 8
liver regulator in this hot climate. In fact
| 7 hardlV knnW, how Jga conld oct alnnp