The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1891-05-07

''In this instance my desire to reduce
discipline to the minimum Of restrain
may have caused me to err. In rela
tion to every patient this discretion
must be exercised, and submit tina
it is cause of congratulation that in {
population Of about nine hundred per
sons so few errors Of this kind occurred
l repeat that was not informed o.
Mines having this key until after the
assault on the attendant, and when in
formed I caused it to be taken from
him. To my great regret have deem,
ed it my duty to subject the patient to
a close custody, which renders his case
almost hopeless to cure"
DR.. Griffin says he visited the wards
and made inspections at intervals and
at times to the best of his judgment.
he also says, speaking of the culinary
department, that an inspection was
made in 1889 by a committee of which
Senator Hemphill was chairman, and
that the committee exonorated that
department from adverse charges.
Speaking of keeping patients at the
Asylum who should not he there, DR..
Griffin says:
ITO this abuse of the public charity
the uperintendent and the board Of
regents have regularly asked the atten-
ton Of the Legislature. Under the
laws the evil is beyond our power TO
remedy. This gross abuse of most
magnificent charity is not referred to
by the legislative committee, although,
.idenlly under the impression that
the fault is with the officers of the
Asylum, the defendants who were ex-
amined before the committee made fire.
quent reference to itn
The state ment of DR.. Corbett is very
brief, touching only the subject of i'll
treatment of patients. He states that
whenever there have been instances of
cruelty the attendants were discharged.
DR.. Thomson makes the reply for the
recent case of suicide. He says:
'As far as can judge the only COM
plant which might reflect on me is
that the attendants were not instructed
at the time she was admitted of the
suicidal tendency of the mind of the
patient who recently killed herself.
She was admitted on the 24th of Jan
uary, 1891, and was then too feeble to
attempt to commit suicide. Hence We
did not instruct the attendants as to
the matter. She was Immediately put
on treatment, and in the course of three
or four weeks had improved a great
deal, both physically and mentally.
About this time she expressed wish
to be changed, as she wanted to 60 in
ward where the patients took the meals
in their own wards, as going to the
general mess hall made her nervous,
and she would rather avoid crowd,
especially as they were noisy and bois-
ferrous at times. She was removed to
the old building and put in quiet
ward, IS she was when in the new
building. She remained here until she
committed suicide"
DR.. 0. Thompson says that he did |
not know that Milne had key to the
female department until after the row
with Mcdowell.
The following is the letter of trans
initial to Governor Tillman:
ITO his Excellency B. R. Tillman,
Governor of South Carolina: In giving
the defence of DR.. Griffin and his assis-
tants to the world we feel it due to
them, to ourselves and to the State at
large, whose servants we are, to say
that in a constant official intercourse
with him Of ten years We have always
found him polished and refined gen.
tleman, an accomplished and skilful
kind, humane and atten-
tive superintendent, and and officer at
all times ready and apparently anxious
to do his entire duty as conceived by
him. Accidents may have occurred,
but as to the general management of
this institution by him we confidently
comparison with the re-
cords of any insane asylum in any State
Of the Union. By order of the board.
"B. W. TAYLOR, President"