Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-06-26
TINsLEY & MORTON, Proprietors.
FRIDAY MORNING.. JUNE 26. 1891
AN EXPERIMENT LEFT UNFIN-
LSHED.

IF the w. l.. Asylum, carefully 1nvestiga-
tIat purpose, the necessity and advantage
Of adding a woman assistant physician to
the medical staff there. The result was the
election of such a physician. She went
through the examination prescribed by the
state Board of Medical Examiners with
credit, and took a place at the Asylum. In
The abundance of its conservatism, for
IN Virginia conservatism is always u
strong trait, the Board adopted d reso-
3ution that in the beginning of the expert
lnent the new woman assistant physician
should act as an assistant to the male as
sstant physician in the female wards. At
its last meeting, while unanimously re-
eiecting the woman physician, the Board
overlooked resembling the temporary
resolution and placing her in her
proper position as an assistant directly re-
sponsible only to the Superintendent of the
Asylum. This is an omission which the
Board will doubtless remedy at its next
meeting.
For it's remedy there are cogent reasons.
The experiment undertaken by the Board
in the interest of the helpless hundreds Of
insane women in this hospital has SO far
not received a conclusive trial, nor can
such test be had until the field given the
woman physician is really open to her. The
Board owes it to itself as the Inauguration
of this experiment; to the woman physl-
oian; to the strongly expressed public de-
mand, and, above all, and stronger than all to
the claims on its humanity that these hum
silcds of helpless female insane have, tomake
this trial full, unbranded and complete. And
VIII lie the Board is doing this, we would
suggest to it the injustice of fixing the
salary for an educated woman physician,
fAuiiliar with the duties required-or that
should he required of her-at a sum in
ferior to those of the male assistant phySI-
Grams. 1t is just one of those pieces OF in
Justice that we are satisfied can only have
come from overlc ohing her claims, and not
from an intention that the Commonwealth
Of Virginia shall accept equal service from
aswoman, at half price, simply because she
is a woman who renders it.
And now one word about the views of
that large and influential portion of the
press of Virginia which has been insisting
on having women physicians in every asY-
luin where there are women inSane-and
which, we may add. will continue to insist
until women insane are no longer subjected
to the supervision OF professional aid of
men in any position whether they be assist
ant physicians Oh superintendent of Asy-
1ums. We think we can with the utmost
exactness, assert that neither those Jour-
mails, nor the mass Of the people they rep
resent, intend by their advocacy to criticise
OF impeach the present administration OF
the asylums in Virginia by the physicians
who have them in charge, OF their subordi-
>nates.~% 1t is an infirmity of the admins
tratiye mind to imagine that any sugges-
ton of improvement in the system of the
office is reflection on the management
and it is apt to forget that the Office IS the
property of the people, that they are but ser
wants temporarily hired to attend to the
duties of these offices, and the people have
reserved to themselves the right to suggest
improve, remove, abolish OF do anything
else they see proper for the benefit Of the
institutions erected and supported by theil
taxes. This right they insist on, and they
can effect all the changes necessary to its
exercise through their representatives il
the legislature. OF the administration al
the w. L. Asylum-to take our nearest III
stitutlon-we personally know nothing, but
all we hear Of the care of the insane there
: is in it's favor. Therefore When we advocate
an improvement of the system with regar(
to the female insane, we do not mean tt
intimate that their treatment under thu
presentsystem ism t the most efficacious thai
can be given them under it. The Boart
: is al efficient one and, as its action in til,
election of q woman physician showed, fal
81 advance Of the Boards of the Other
Gums in Virginia in the matter of pro
lis. The Superintendent and his staff
! aie gentlemen who carry out their duties
with Judgment, kindness and faithfulness
3 jig on the whole an administration thai
i eill compare advantageously with that Of
any other Virginia Asylum. That is our in
To- nlatio2 and the Information of the gen
era public about them. Wesay this because
We 10 not wish our structures On a system
to get confused i'll the public mind with
structures on the men who administer it
And we say it at this early day, because be
fore and after the meeting of the next leg
islature this and other papers in the State
will have good deal more to say than ha'
yet been said about the present time-worl
system of managing asylums in this State
The friends Of this reform expect to lie abl'
to present information to that legislature
based on successful trial in other States
aich will insure legislation giving Boards
VII Directors fuller powers and more respon
#9iHty; giving more publicity to the af
Sirs of the insane institutions, and a com
Il Sete separation of medical duties and ad
III 81 illustrative duties which shall be of ad
ss2assantage to the medical officers and to tn
I yatients- short, legislation that will pu
the Virginia Asylums for the insan
abreast of the most progressive in othe
States.
The Dispatch and Mr.. Cleveland.
We had supposed that the Staunton VINDl
GATOR knew that the Dispatch has no axe
Grind, and therefore has no "prejudices.' w
Claim to see party matters with uncloude
vision. Nevertheless, our Staunton contem
porary says OF u.s.:
nIf Congress next December shall pass a fire
silver coinage bill: as all things point to its dc