The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-04-23
OF THE INSANE
Annual Report Of the Man
ayers of the State
Hospitals.
HUDSON cOUNTY's INSTITUTION
Vice Chancellor Birds Decision
Makes the Greater Number Of
Admissions to Asylums
Illegal.
COUNTY'S INSTITUTION
srecial to the Jcrscv cfty Ncacc.

1RENTON, April 20, lcJf.-Iu0 TepOfU VI
the Board of Managers of State Hospitals
forthe fiscal year ending October 80 last has
just been published. The comprises the
forty-sixth annual report of the State Hos
pital at Trenton and the eighteenth of the
one at Morris Plains. The board has charge
of all the asylums for the insane throughout
the State. At the last session of the Legis-
lature a law was passed changing the title Of
these institutions from asylums to hospitals
and placing the Trenton n Morris Plains
institutions under what is known as the dual
system, that is a superintendent and med
zeal director and a warden.
The Trenton Hospital upder the admins
tration of John w. Ward. M. D., as Super
intendent and Medical Director, and Will
lam H.. Early as Steward and Warden, has
maintained its high character for efficiency.
1t has grounds and buildings valued at
SS01, 1906 3,a and 81. 947.4 40 was realized from
the sale of hay and grain, vegetables and
fruits and hogs and cattle raised upon its
property.
DIR. WARDS DEPARTMENT.
The number OF patients IN the institution
at the close of the last fiscal year was S78-
421 men and 457
The number received since, viz, from
November /, 1892, to October 81, 1898, was
201-111 men and 30 women. The whole
number of cases under care during the year
was, 1,079-532 men and SAT women-an in
crease of ~twenty-three over the number
under care the last fiscal year. OF this num-
Der, ia have been discharged, as follows:
Considered as recovered, seventy; as inn
proved, twenty-six; as unfmproved or
stationary, ten; two escaped; sixty-hve have
died and one was discharged upon a writ OF
hdbeas corpus. At the close of the year
there remained under care 905-442 men and
AG2 Vnman-an IpcraaGa Of fVvApfV-Snvpn
over the whole number under care at the
close of the fiscal year ending October 81,
1892.
OF the number under care at the present
time, 100 are classed as INDECENT, and are
supported by the counties from whence sent;
n~inety-seven are private, and are supported
wholly by friends, and fourteen men and
four women are supported directly by the
State.
The largest number under care at any one
time during the year was 905, and the small
est number $40. The daily average was
nearly S91.
VERY LOW RATE
The hospital passed through the entire
year with but very little acute sickness of a
serious character. Death occurred in the
cases of thirty-four men and thirty-one
ONE TIL death rate in proportion to the
whole number under care during the year
was about 6 per centum, which is consider
dOAJ % UIcA4 uttO ci1lQOl FOt CSO I'LL Ii U4AO
past decade. Thirteen deaths occurred dur
ing the first quarter of the fiscal year, thir-
teen during the second, twenty during the
third, and nineteen during the last quarter.
Thirty-four men and thirty-six women
have been discharged as recovered. h
number is about 81 per centum OF the adj
missions during the year.
In ffty-nine cases (thirty-fiye men and
twenty-four women of those admitted dur
ing the year, there was acknowledged her
editary predisposition to insanity, decided in
thirty-three cases Sixteen men and seven
teen women) and a tendency to insanity in
twenty-six cases (ninteen men and seven
women. In twenty cases (ten men and ten
women) the hereditary faint was in the pa
ternal, and in twenty cases fourteen men
and six women) in the maternal line, and In
two cases lone man and woman) in both the
paternal and maternal line. In sixteen cases
ten men and six w0menl insanity was simply
acknowledged to exist in some branch of the
family. In ~eighty-seven cases (forty-seven
men and forty women hereditary predis-
position was denied, and in ifty-six cases
(twenty-nine men and t~wenty-seven women
the history of the patient was unknown or
unascertained.
HoMICIDAL TENDENCY.
In the cases of five men and TO ur women
there existed a decided homicidal tendency,
and in those of eleven men inc eight women,
homicide was threatened. Thirty-six men
and seven woine acknowledged intemper-
ance in the use of alcohol, and four men and
one woman in the use of opium. In the cases
of thirteen men and nine women the fathers
of the patients were incorporate in the use
of alcohol, and in one case both the father
and the mother. F~ifty-three men and
forty-one women were married, and thirty
eight men and twenty-six women were
single, while sixteen were widowers, four
teen widows, four divorced, and in nine
cases the civil condition was unknown.
ARE ALL ILLEGALLY COMMITTED
AS has been said before, one case was dis
charged from the institution upon a writ of
ha5eds corpus issued out of the Court of
Cnancery of this State. The patent so dis
charged belonged to the INDECENT class, and
was regularly committed to the Hospital as
an insane person; the statute under which
such cases are admitted was complied with
in every particular-tnat is, upon an order
Of one of the Judges of the Court of
Common Pleas of the county of Mer-
GER; the approval of the Chosen Free
holder of the township in which the
patient resided and from whence sent, and
the certificate under oath of lin this case)
two physicians as to the insanity of the in
dividual and the necessity for hospital treat
ment. The patient was taken before Vice
Chancellor Bird, in obedience to the writ, and
the proper return made. The question OF
the sanity or insanity of the individual was
not discussed or Investigated, but an order
for discharge was granted by the Vice Chan
cellor solely upon the ground that the
patients detention in the Hospital was il
legal, because the patient has never had
notice of the proceedings upon which she
was committed to the institution. Under
this decision, not more han one per centum
of the entire number at present under care
in this Hospital have been legally committed.
NEW ERECTED.
Two new buildings, one ON each wing, 70
by 40 feet, and three stories in height, have
been erected of stone and solidly and sub
stantially built, for the purpose of providing
associate dining rooms, and at the same time
increasing the capacity of the wards. These
rooms arc open to the light upon three sides,
are finished in light wood, natural colors,
and present a most cheerful and inviting
appearance. By this Improvement accom-
modations will be secured for about sixty
more patients on each wing, or a total Of
~ervision can be had of the patients at their
meals, and a more satisfactory service can
be secured. These buildings are connected
with the wings by covered Railways, and
will be finished, furnished and ready for oc-
cupancy, Oh Thanksgiving Day.
THE MORRIS PLAINS ASYLUM.
The lands and buildings of the hospital at
Morris Plains are valued at $2s604, Az. 80,
while the value of the personal property is
placed at SI32, 831.S5, making a total of
50, 737, 1904. Is.
Dr.. B. D. Evans is the medical director
and ex-senator Moses K. Everitt is the
warden. During the past year the sum of
$3S, 49, CT was realized from the sale of stock,
farm, garden n dairy produce.
On October 81, 1892, there remained in the
hNctSffal 0fO vorsanfaMn3r1 xr1a,, oN1 frQ