Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1896-03-12
OUR INSANE ASYLUM
SPECIAL REPORT OF COUNTY AsYLUMs
IN WISCONSIN,.

IN WISCONSIN,.
some improvements suggested.-4O46 Pa
tients Now Being Cared for by the
state
The report Of the special investigation OF
county asylums for the chronic insane IN
w isconsin made by A. O. Wright OF Madison
bv direction OF Gov. Upham. IS just issued.
A complete inventory of the 2646 chronic IN
sane in these institutions was taken. a COM
Dlete list Of the inmates in each asylum be-
ing first obtained, each commitment paper
was gone over carefully. considering al
questions Of residence of idiocY and Of pc
culiarities in the insanity by apersonal ex-
animation Of the inmates as well as the pa
pers in the case, and in addition notice was
taken of ali other matters relating to the
building furniture food clothing etc.
Mr.. wright sums up his conclusions as fol-
lows
The general result of this investigation
is that the treatment Of the chronic insane
in these county asylums was found TO be
uniformly Of high character. He com
mends the food. clothing. care OF the rooms
and housekeeping generally in all the in
stitutons but found tendency TO econo-
mize by not employing enough attendants,
the rule OF the board OF control that there
be at least one attendant for each twenty
i've patients not always being lived up to.
This. he says is an ill-judged economy. lie
urges anight service IN all institutions and
says 1t Is extraordinary this was not intro
duced into the two state hospitals till about
a year ago He found that for many patients
there were no commitment papers on file
and says The law organizing county asy-
lums forbids any assistance from the state
appropriation for persons not legally com
mitted as insane. In a small number of in
stances it did not appear that inmates were
actually insane although committed as
such. These cases were all Of persons who
ought to be cared for by the public in such
a way. but who could only be called insane
by avery liberal construction Of that word
He found large surplus Of male insane
over female insane in the state A list Of
eongeiltal idiots has been prepared and
furnished the board OF control and he finds
that the superintendents OF the state hos
pitfalls had been careless IN receiving into
the hospitals persons committed as insane
who we're obviously congenital idiots and
Interchangeable to the state.
lie found quite number of cases OF crim-
nal insane and of dangerous insane. These
ought to be in a criminal asylum and till
that mucn-need Institution is erected they
ought to be in separate ward of one OF
tho hospitals.
some suggestions q Improvement in de-
tails Of the work are given and the report
concludes: The success Of the county asv-
lums is due to the enlightened public senti-
ment in The counties which has been Great
pl m he
fact tina the trustees and officers are SO
well fitted for their places. The list of
trustees includes many men of state repu-
tation. The visiting physicians are among
the best local physicians. The superintend-
ents and matrons are all well qualified for
their work, some of them in a pre-eminent
degree. Changes are made in superintend-
ents and matrons very rarely. and the
tendency is to look for the persons best
qualified whenever they can be found with
out regard TO county lines and the idea is
that good officers should not be al
lowed to go for any trivial reason. The
only place tor Improvement would seem to
he in the character OF the attendants. This
is equally problem in the state hospitals
here and in other states. The attendants
now employed are as good as can be Sc
tuteu ny tug phSSSht hiStltouS anu AhS III
ent rate OF pay. They are generally of
kindly dispositions and willing towork even
when the work is very trying and Disagree
able as II sometimes Is.
The total number OF insane in all the hos
pitfalls and asylums September 80 1898, was
4o45 e247 men and 1900 women The asylums
in brown. Columbia Dodge and Dunn coun-
ties we're over crowded. The number of in
mates in each of the twenty-five county
aaA.lm1na in Tho slala. M.arl.-