The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-02-13

at st. Johnsbury, pumped from the polluted
Passumpsic. Impure water is undoubtedly
the cause of the great prevalence in Bur
lington and ST. Johnsbury of diphtheria,
typhoid and other filth diseases. Either of
the sites shown you may be easily drained,
and without crossing the land of other
parties.
/" A state insane asylum should be located
in quiet neighborhood, and not close to a
trotting-course, state fair grounds, militia
muster and target-shootng grounds, and
close to, and overlooked by, college or other
buildings occupied by the young; nor should
1t be very near to large and rapidly-grow-
| ing city. Its inmates ought not to be dis
turbed by frequent incursions of curious
visitors, or by classes of medical students
| brought in to examine them by some pro-
lessor of mental and nervous diseases, who
wishes to give clinical lectures on the vari-
Gus phases which their maladies assume.
| III these examinations by classes of medical
students are made and the clinical lectures
given, the patients are disturbed and in
! Jured If they are not made the institution
| is of no benefit to the medical students, and
there is no reason for locating it near a
medical schcni.
Having had pretty large experience
in remodeiing hospitals made out of old
| buildings, as well as some new ones planned
| by men without much practical experience
! in hospital administration, and having had
I frequent occasion to inspect magnificent
/
whose main idea seemed to be to make as
much show architecturally as possible, no
! matter how much this show interfered with
tire practical working of the hospital
| speak on this subject with considerable
| feeling, and do not hesitate to assert that
| there is no building, or set of buildings, now
standing in the state of Vermont that you
can afford to take as a gift to be incorpo-
rated in a state asylum. There are none
adapted to the requirements of the present
| age, and the more thoroughly they were
| built originally the more il will cost to tear
them down and prepare foundations for the
new structure. If the attempt is made to
| incorporate the old buildings with the new
they will soon become eye-sores from want
of correspondence with the general design
and be sources of much greater inconve-
nience and expense than if they were en-
tirely demolished at first and a new start
made.
In Waterbury, if you choose you can
obtain from 80 to $50 or more acres of ex-
cellent land in one body, and furnished
with win an ample supply OF pure soft water
with sufficient head for fire purposes
Drainage is easily effected. No large build
ings will have to be removed. We claim
that Waterbury is more readily reached
from all parts of the state than the other
towns that it has the best air, the best
water, the best soil that it is quiet and
has as pleasant location, all things con-
sidered, especially in the summer, as any
OF the other places under consideration.
We are well aware that in the matter of
wealth we can not compete with either
Burlington or st. ,Johnsbury but we think
this has nothing to do with the location of
state asylum which is to be for the accom-
mediation of the poorer people throughout
the state. Many wealthy capitalists are not
going to send their friends to a state in
sttution for the criminal and pauper in
sane. They will be much more likely to
I n a nriX to rntr 70 Of
which Burlington already has two, for the
treatment of nervous and mental diseases
We ask nothing in the way of special favor
but we do think that if Waterbury best ac-
commodities the whole state and has the
greatest number of natural advantages the
asylum should be located here"
Colonel F. E. Smith and General p. p. Pit
kin of Montpelier, from long acquaintance
vouched for Waterbury as a place healthy
in its moral and intellectual tone and
dwelt particularly on the strong, rich quail
ity of the soil and the purity of its hillside
springs. Senator Jones of Watsfield repre-
sented that Washington county believed
that Waterbury Justly deserved the asylum,
and consequently should have it, and Judge
Stanton heartily concurred in what had
been previously said.
Whatever may have been the opinion of
the commissioners it was certainly the be-
lief of the citizens and visitors that Water
bury had put forth claims which could not
be preferred by any of the other towns de-
string the location of the asylum. In brief,
they were these: % \ death-rate much
smaller than that of the other competing
towns; % greater accessibility; (3) more
fertile soil; az a greater freedom from
zymotic and filth diseases; % purer water;
90 as quiet and pleasant surroundings.
The difference between Waterbury and
Burlington, so far as accessibility is con-
cerned, is almost imperceptible St. Johns
Il ,,g
access and Morrisville fifteen per cent:
that is to say, for every hundred miles trav-
eled by the insane and their attendants in
going to Waterbury or Burlington one
hundred twenty-five miles would have to
be covered to reach st. Johnsbury and
one hundred fifteen to reach Morrisville.
1t can be readily seen that the extra ex-
pense in sending the insane to Morrisville
or st. Johnsbury for a number of years
would be very large item, while in addi
ton, the poor quality of the soil and water
at the latter place, together with its large
death-rate, as compared with Waterbury
Gt being seventeen and one-half per thou
sand for st. Johnsbury, which is above the
average, and only eleven and one-third per
thousand for Waterbury, which is five be-
low the average), would seem to remove it
altogether from consideration.
In the location of an institution where
the essential object is the medical treatment
of the inmates it could not be expected that
sanitary surroundings should be ignored in
order to give particular section its public
building, nor is it customary in such cases
to overlook the matter of expense. 1t would
be more humane, and in the long run
cheaper, to furnish the complaining locality
a subsidy than to give it an institution
which economy and health considerations
demanded it should not have
The report that the commission had de-
cided to locate the asylum at Waterbury,
be obtained, was received with the greatest
satisfaction throughout the town, none the
less because it was felt that the selection
was merited. One site has already been
offered the board at its own price, so
there seems no doubt that the commission
will be satisfied in this particular. With
the asylum and the Mount Mansfield rail
road under process of construction, the
coming two years bid fair to be busy ones
for Waterbury.
THE president has removed A. p. Edger-