The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1886-11-11
Western Lunatic Asylum.
REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT.

From the annual report Of DR.. D. B.
Conrad. Superintendent of the Western
! Lunatlc Asylum. ending on the LIST day
| of October, 1886, we CLEAN the following
interesting particulars:
The number of patients in the Asylum
as of that date was 6s7-3l4 being males
and Si3 females.
There were 1886 applications for admls-
sion during the past year, of which lit
were admitted and ITO rejected. The
number of applications during the year
for room for pay patients was Is, of which
! were admitted and s rejected.
There were 80 lnen and 100 women
married, and PA men and 176 women I'M
married Eightt men are widowers and
thirty seven women widows. OF the
whole number 4l6 are quiet and harmless
incurables who could safely be associated
in two large rooms in two separate build
ings designed especially Tor that class.
There are 22 male attendants, % female
attendants and night watches.
There are so patients now away on fur
Tough.
There are now in the various counties
awaiting admission to an asylum 81 male
and 80 female insane persons.
During the year the following discharges
of patients have been made: recovered.
70 :; improved IL unimproyed s not in
sane l. and died 40. The ratio Of recov-
cries to admissions was $40 per cent;
the ratio of deaths to the daily average
was 100 per cent. Of the 1855 patients
admitted during the year, 80 were read
missions.
The daily average OF patients in he Asy-
lum has been about 627 and the income to
the Asylum has been-including its an
nual allowance from the State of 5000
800, 900. making the annual cost to the
State of each patient, $l64.
1.-THE list of pay patients, says DR..
Conrad s report, is noticeable from the
fact of there being only Is out of 627 pa
tients, some Of whose accounts run back
as far as 1874. In the last year there were
admitted who pay their board at S22.50 a
month, while among those who were re-
jected there were who offered to pay for
their maintenance. The reply to those who
ask to be admitted as pay patients, is that
no discrimination is made, either as to
admission or treatment. between those
who do and those who do not pay that the
payment was purely optional, and if it in
terfered with the proper support of the
family and the education of the children
of the patient, it was not to be thought
of. The only consideration that ever in
fiuences us in admissions is the nature of
the insanity and what vacancy exists in
the wards
The report shows in strong light The
crowded state of the Asylum. 1t is filed
with the accretions and debris of the adj
missions for fifty-nine years since the in
situation was opened-and large number
of those who have in the progress of their
disease become hopelessly imbecile and
idiotic. One hundred and eighty-four of
the patients have been there for from ten
to fifty years. and 118 have been there
from five to ten years, making 3sS patients
who will surely be there for life; while
of the remaining PAL most Of whom have
been there for over two years-it can only
be seen at this Gay that twenty are likely
to be discharged as recovered.
There are 1858 rooms into which are
crowded 627 patients andithere are now no
vacant rooms or beds.
Since the Asylum was erected SO years
ago. ithas had :. 300 patients and every year
has added to its list of incurables still re-
manning within its walls. Of it's nearly
1900 admissions there has been 2,196 dis
charged as cured, 1885 have died, and
there remain to day 900 incurables out of
627 inmates. The incarables are all in
good physical health from the fact that
they are taken good care Of, regularly fed
On simple food, go to bed and rise at the
same hours, and thus lead an orderly quiet,
uneventful life. Taken care of, body and
soul. they become mere machines and live
indefinitely, some to very old age, AS num-
bers there now show.
DR.. Conrad, thinks that unless enlarged,
the Asylum will in few years come to be
place not for the cure of the insane, but
merely a place for the safe-keeping of in
durable insane, as that class will very soon
take up all the room it has, to the exclu-
sion of those who might be cured if they
could obtain admission. In view of this
impending paralysis Of the usefulness of
the Asylum in the direction that its cree
tion was intended, DR.. G. recommends
the erection of two buildings for the re-
ception of the 1856 quiet, harmless, and in
durable insane, which can be done at a cost
of $50, 900, ard thus give room for about
the same number Of new patients who
have chance of being cured. The Su.
perintendent strongly enforces in his re-
port the necessity and advantage of the
early admission to asylums of those who
are attacked by insanity.
DIR. Conrad exhibits statistics to show
that the increase of insanity in the United
States is not increasing beyond the per-
centage of increase of population, % 4-10.
In 1880. in Virginia, there was one insane
person to every 627 of her inhabitants, and
in 1886 one in every 700. Between the
races, insanity in Virginia is divided as
follows: Whites-in 1880, in sO4, and in
1861 in $50; Colored-in 1880. in 9l9,
and in 1886, ! in 1908.
The City vs. John M. Carroll and
Others.
THE REPORT OF MASTER COMMISSIONER
JOHN NJ. KINNEY.