Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1894-05-25

Out Of twenty -eight nurses who had charge
of me during my long stay there, l cannot re-
call one. OF whom have not a grateful and
aifectionate remembrance. Thus forewarned
L think I can trust you to go to the Johns
Uopk ms, and under the charge Of the modern
hospital nurse.
A JOHNS HOPKINS PATIENT OF 1928.
Management Of Insane Asyiums
in 1894.
SHARP TALK TO THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
BY AN EXPERT.
[From the Philadelphia Record of Nav Is. |
Philadelphia's distinguished neurologist,
Dr.. S. Weir Mitchell, delivered the semi-cen-
tennial address before the American Medico-
Psychological Association, National Asso-
citation Of superintendent of insane asylums
at the New Century Hall. last evening, and
preached the prominent alienists there as
sembled such a sermon as they could scarcely
have expected. 1t must have been to them a
somewhat similar sensation to that which
would follow the grasping of handles of {.
galvanic battery by mistake. Instead of COM
plmenting the asylum superintendent and
nervous experts sitting before him upon the
glorious progress of their society during the
past half-century, he began by broadly and
emphatlcally declaring that in the splendid
advance OF surgery and medicine, the alien
lists advance has been proportionately little
He accused his hearers of having drifted
out of relation with the larger life of outside
medicine. and said 'This want of compe-
tent, original work is the worst symptom of
torpor the asylums now present. Seriously
we ask you experts, what have you brought
us of these 9l,oOO insane whom you see or
treat? We are often surprised at the amaz-
ing lack of complete physical study of the in
sane
He then proceeded to criticse the system !:
"Y on are trammeled by custom. lack OF
means and above all and saddest OF all, d.
rectly or indirectly by politics. The boards
which control these asylumS are too often
made up without one physician who can be
called expert in neurological medicine. In
some States the appointment and continuance
by boards of a physician superintendent is
said to be largely a question of politics.
have seen hospitals that satisfied managers
and yet smelt and looked like second-class
lodging house. What we want is a training
school for hospital managers.
"My fear is that some of you would not
change your organization if you could My
belief is that your lives are destructive of en-
ergy. You are alone, uncriticised unques-
toned, out of the healthy conflicts and honest
rivalries which keep us up to the work. The
whole asylum system is in my opinion wrong,
and has been let to harden into organized
shapes which are difficult to reshape. You
ought not to live and sleep in your hospitals
at all you ought to be content with the world
of sane men.
Upon my word, think asylum life is
rologists there is settled belief that you do
not handle your acute cases with sufficient in
naturalization. Once we spoke of asylums
with respect; it is not SO now.
"Your organization needs improvement in
endowed suburban hospitals, in the work
thrown on young resident physicians. Why
have not more of you started training schools
for nurses? The fact is your nurses are, as
| rule, of a low and quite uneducated class
Have you people in your asylums trained to
use as masseurs? I see plenty of cases in
your wards who need this. In how many
hospitals is there an electrical room? How
many hospitals are provided with the appli-
ances for hydro-therapeuti treatment? How
many of them apply it at all?
1.-The noble object lesson seen at Werners
Vile, where hundreds of insane practically
camped in the open and did work which
would amaze many, ought to fill with shame
the municipal authorities in this city, when
they look at our civic insane hospitals where
rows of hapless men and women sit watched
by attendants, unframed and unintelligent.'
DR.. Mitchell concluded by sketchino his
| iuooI uuopfJui nedI " CITY, without walls
Oh tho locked gates and the door keepers
loop-hole, with buildings standing apart as
small homes, each with head nurse, the
gymnasium, tricycles and bicycles, tennis-an
| croquet, work rooms and school rooms and
all the machinery Of hospital, in records,
nurses and apparatus