Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1892-10-19
Western Lunatic Asylum.


Directors of the Western Lunatic Asylum,
was held yesterday. All the members were
present except one, Mr.. Manson, of Lynch
burg, to-wit: Messrs. Beckham, President,
Moffett, Hansbrough, Coyner, Treadway,
Lynn, Conway, and Stickley.
In addition to the consideration of the
report of DR.. B. Blackford, Superintendent, a
large amount of routine business was trans
acted. This is the 65th annual report of the
affairs of the institution, from which the
following extracts are made:
In the movement of population there were
in the Asylum at the same time 1891, 296
males and 313 females, total 609 There were
admitted during the past year SO males and
6S females, total 161.
The number remaining at the close of the
present year $50 males and 1923 females, total
662
The health of the household during the
year has been excellent. The sanitary, the
very best and entire freedom from epidemics.
The needed Improvements and repairs conf
pleted during the year embraced a new gas
tank which affords the opportunity of having
an abundance of light for the entire establish
ment, which is equally provided for in full
supply of water. The last of the two hospital
additions erected du ring the last two years is
now nearly com pleted. This is the addition
to the female ward and will be ready for oc-
cupancy in few days. The new buildings
including furniture have been erected at a
cost of $40 per capita.
The fact that the entire buildings Of the
Asylum are not insured is again referred to,
and the remedy against loss in case of fire is
urgently recomme nded.
DR.. B. speaks of Defective Education as a
predisposing cause of insanity" in which he
says 'All modes of education and bringing
up that are in harmony with natures laws
looking at human beings from the point of
view of mind and body together, must tend
to lessen insanity, all moral teaching that
strengthens the power of selfcontrol and re-
speet for the rights of others, must make for
sanity. All healthful precautions to secure a
sound good stock for future generations must
be beyond measure important towards the
same object and all special study to discover
early in life weak nesses of constitution,
mental and phi ysical, with suitable arrange
ments to remedy them, must be healthful in
strengthing the race gene rally"
Are there any conditions i'll our modern
education and modes of life, specially con-
ducive to the product on of insanity? Is the
present age of school-boards, one in which
insanity is man ufactured by mental over
work on the part of children =? Is the public
school syst EN- of educating the present gene
ration of children, in our large towns and
cities, going to add to or diminish the chances
of mental upset in after life? Many medical
writers are of the opinion that modern edu-
cation. with all its excel lencles, and all the
great results it has achieved, is not wide
enough, or in other words not physiological
enough and that it is not based, as it should
be, upon complete theory of the solidarity
of mind and body" in human beings-and
that it scarcely recogniz es the great variety OF
type in the young In support of this view,
he quotes from Savage and Clouston-eml-
nent specialists on insanity at cannot be
questioned W neither the influence of the daily
newspaper, containing as it does the fullest
pernicious in familiarizing the youth of both
sexes with forms of vice that sti mulate, if
they do not create, the germs of cerebral
disease. And if this be the case, it deserves to
be gravely determined whether the co-educa-
ton of the sexes is not ource Of great phys
cal injury in the premature development of
sexual iniirmities or manifestations, stimu-
lated by the licentious exhibitions of cheap
theatres and the free circulation of a sort of
y ,1,nla
obscene. In the circles Of what is called fash
ionable society, the young are brought
together at an age which requires the most
cautious and vigilant oversight on the part of
parents and night after night are permitted
to join in the exciting round dance, kept up
hour after hour, with the free use of wine,
and with music hardly less intoxicating; until
exhausted nature demands such repose as is
not often supplied. The consequences are
such as cannot be more than limited at here
but the remark is becoming common among
physicians that truly healthy young woman
is an exceptional phenomenon. The statistics
of the insane hospitals, and of nervous
diseases in the ordinary practice of physicians,
are especially important in the study of this
inquiry, while the average birth rate in
families that should not he afflicted with
sterility, points for its solution to causes
which one hardly likes to name, and which
are dangerous to physical health. The num-
Der of cases of uncomfortable sexual passion,
| and of self-abuse Gn both sexes), confined in
asylums unfolds tale that is distressing and
aiarming-and it behooves Christian parents
to consider gravely and to seriously endeavor
to remove one of the undoubted causes of this
/ phase of insanity, which is becoming so
common, and which is sucking the very life
blood of many of the rising generation,
| physically, mentally, and morally"
The report was approved and 500 copies
ordered to be printed.