The Portland daily press., 1882-03-24
Insane Women.
WHY THEY SHOULD BE TREATED By
PHYSICIANS OF THEIR OWN SEX.
Results Of Such Treatment in Pennsylva
mia and Elsewhere.
[Sarah w. Devoll, NJ. d.

[Sarah w. Devoli, NJ. d.
No one, it seems to me, can observe CLOSELY
large numbers of the insane without Deine
struck with this fact,-how much their condl
ton makes them like children, and how mucn
of the same sort of discipline and treatment Ii
required in their management. The same pa
tience, gentle firmness and power to direct
the same readiness to speak or remain silent
the same demand for the proper exhibition Of
Sympathy, untiring devotion, truthfulness
self-centrol, loving-kindness.
This representation of the qualities of woman
is generally recognized; but the application Of
these traits, peculiarly feminine in many ways
outside the home are not generally recognized
This special fitness is apparent through thai
general fitness for the medical profession, de-
scribed by Carlyle in a letter to a friend re-
Gently published. He says, "Their force OF in
tellect, their sympathy, their wonderful acute
ness of observation, &C., seem to indicate in
them peculiar qualities for dealing with dis
ease, and evidently in certain departments
chat of female disease) they have quite pecuA
ar opportunities of being useful
These thoughts of woman's inherent fitness
for treating the insane can be shown to have
their foundation in psychological and physio'
logical processes and phenomena and hence te
be philosophical.
According to my thinking, says DIR. Hedge
SIT is soul that makes organization, not organ.
ization the SOUL" The active sympathies and
as distinct from other qualities held in common
with man. They were the mould in which
she was cast,-and to which she owes her plas.
tic grace and power of endurance. Her more
sensitive, sympathetic nervous system, required
to guard the processes of nutrition for the sake
of maternity, is but part of the same forma-
tive and directing force. Out of these psyche
logical and physiological phenomena come VIC
unless active force be held superior to endur-
ence," and those adaptive forces which fit her
to be the mother of the race, to train the
young, care for the sick, to treat disease, en-
ter into works of humanity and benevolence,
and all those offices and labors to which in the
progression of the race, the expression of her
sympathetic, practical forces and traits may be
found to be valuable.
But while natural fitness is the best founda-
ton for and guarantee of success, something
more is essential There must be liberal Gull
ture, executive ability, common sense, power
tai tension.
OF woman's ability to endure all the hard
ships incurred in large medical practice, we
have evidence in the last thirty years of prac-
tice by women. Some have married and have
families besides their professional work. A
few fill professorships and are mothers of sever
al children to whom they are as much more de-
voted than ordinary mothers, as their intelli-
gent appreciation of their needs, and their own
obligations, demand. One such has passed
away. DIR. cleveland, who for several years
was fading in consumption, filled with acknowl-
Medical College, Philadelphia; was success
full ovariotomist. She filed also the varied
role demanded by large practice, cared rem
derby for an invalid husband, and was the ami
mating spirit of home it was physical rest
and mental inspiration to visit. Thirty years
ago q young, intellectual but delicate woman
physician, married physician, and together
they began the practice of medicine A few
years ago, worn out in his profession, he passed
away, leaving her to go on in her practice
alone. They each built up large. practice.
She was mother and manager OF home
modelled after the neatness and order of the
Friends, from which stock she sprang.
The consideration, modification and adoption
of the non-restraint system the appointment OF
boards Of lunacy commissions; the passage OF
lunacy reform bills; the agitation of the ques-
tions of notifications OF systems through medi-
cal journals and the public press; the investi-
cations in progress in several States, all show
the unsatisfactoriness of the traditional man
agement of the insane. Some notifications
that are desirable for the better management
and treatment of the women may be effected,
and can alone be effected, by women.
What better treatment can be alone effected
by women? The treatment of that class OF in
sane women who are either insane because OF
diseases peculiar to women, or in whom those
diseases are disturbing causes OF i'll health and
tor1 or nf
the point of recovery. There are cases suscep-
tible of treatment, if properly treated at once,
that cannot bear the irritation of inadequate
or the delay occasioned by protract-
ed, or let alone course. The obstacles in the
way OF examinations and treatment OF these
patients is shown in the fact that such exami-
nations are not made and suitable treatment
applied.
DIR. Harlow stated, if the papers correctly re-
ported him, that such examinations are not
made. Why are they not made, and why is
not the treatment applied? Certainly not be-
cause of want of disposition to cure, or ability
to treat such patients. DIR. III. r. Storer in his
work on Insanity in Women states, 1.-THE su-
perintendent, as at present situated, cannot
make such examinations OF female patient or
pursue such methods of treatment as are abso-
lutely required for the relief of many forms of
genealogical disease. upon the existence OF
which as we have said, her mental malady not
depends. He is absolutely pre-
vented from this alike by his regard for the pa
TENTS welfare, for his own personal reputation
and that of his hospital So constantly COM
PEELED to see the patient he appreciates the i'm
portance as regards other details of treatment,
moral, etc.. that he should retain her conf
dence and escape her fears; he recognizes the
danger lest an endeavor to arrive at proper
diagnosis of her disease, should seem to the dis
ordered mind only an attempt at improper and
liberties with her person, and,
should she ever entirely recover her reason, be
SO represented to friends and to the commune
ty by her perverted and imperfect memory.
u = In this strait upon whom is the SUI
to rely? Not upon his assistants
at any rate placed in the same relations as
himself to the patient, the hospital and outside
world"
To which DR.. Margaret A. Cleaves, a num-
Der of years in the woman's department of a
State asylum in Iowa, now in charge of that
department in Harrisburg, Pa, adds, st is in
insane women, suffering from diseased condi-
tions peculiar to the sex that we are most apt
to find those perverSions of sensations and per-
ception which lead them to misinterpret that
which is done for them. Public confidence is
already too easily shaken in our charitable in
situations, and we cannot afford to add another
possible cause for tremor. no matter how good
the motive nor desirable the result. Some hos
pital physicians have realized the difficulties
in their way, their utter inability to afford all
insane women uuOoI tuclr Cah0 oVory AdCliity
for recovery"
One of our older and most able superinten-
dents, Dr. Bancroft of Concord, N. H., has
said, "No one would be more thankful than
myself for better facilities than we are at pres
emit affording for investigation and treating
those cases." Says DIR. Cleaves, while in
conversation with one of our western superin-
tendents few months since, he expressed his
conviction of the almost insurmountable diff
culties in the way of proper treatment for
portion of this class of patients, and the need
he experienced of suitable means to overcome
them
DR.. Tyler of Mclean Asylum, Somerville,
Mass, during his administration and life was
in the habit of calling in the aid of other ply
sicians,-I know in many instances, a woman
physician.
A superintendent of sound Judgment and
rare fidelity, recently expressed to me the i'm
practicabiity flsuperintendents, or their assis-
tants treating those women who suffer from
diseases of women.
In many hospitals the treatment is not at
tempted and the generally imperfect manner in
which diseases of women have been studied as
causes of insanity is shown by the ignorance
that prevails upon the subject. All authors
agree that they are causes OF insanity. Yet 10
what extent is not known.
DR.. Margaret A. Cleaves declares her BELIEF
that in large number of cases such diseases
are the predisposing and exciting causes, and
says further, II know that diseases OF women
exist in large proportion Of insane women.
The disability on the part of superintendents