Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-08-28
CARE OF THE INSANE
Annual Report on St. Elizabeth's
Asylum.
MEHACED BY ANACOsFlA FLATS
Only a Small Proportion Of inmates
Want to Escape.
NEED OF A NEW CHAPEL

The Secretary of the Interior has received
the forty-second annual report of the board
OF visitors of the government hospital for
the insane, which contains much interest
ing data relating to the condition and needs
of that institution. The unhealthful con-
dition Of the hospital site, caused by the
Anacostia flats, is presented with great
force. and the necessity of getting rid of
these Misunderstanding flats is strongly
urged. Other needs of the institution are
suggested.
The report shows that there were ], 735
patients in the hospital June 30, 1896, $50
OF whom were males and 4O5 females. There
were admitted during the last fiscal year
$50 male and So female PATIENTS; SO that
curing the year there were Under treatment
ZIP patients.
During the year patients were discharged
as follows: Recovered, 63 males, IS fe-
males: improved, so males, A females; un-
improved, males: not insane, 4 males,
female There were deaths of 100 males
and 81 females. There were in the institu-
ton June 30, 1887, 1867 males and 400
females.
After referring to the low death rate. only
seven and two-thirds per cent of the
whole number Under treatment, the report
says:
Fatal Elects of the Flats
This is a lower rate than has been re-
corded here for a number of years, and
We can hardly hope for it's continuance,
since there Is as yet no aDDreciable dimi-
mutton, rather an Increase. in the num-
Der of old and feeble men received, from
the National Home for Disabled Vulun-
teer Soldiers, while the Eastern branch
OF the Potomac as n source of malarial
disease remains unchanged. We are aware
that the latter Is not a new topic, that
this Is the fourth successive annual re-
port in which the attention of Congress
has been called to the necessity for eff
c1ent work and decisive action for the re-
moval OF a nuisance that menaces the
health of whole community"
After speaking of the Potomac flats i'm
provement west of the city. the report
says:
But what svails all this to the health of
Washington, save in some favored locali-
ties, when the whole south front and
eastern boundary of the city lie naked and
open to all the deadly enanations from
the far-reachir & marshes of the Anacos-
tia. that with their stagnant pools lie
fostering In the summer sun? As IL to
make matters worse, some years since in
the progress of the work of retaining the
Potomacs shores the mud scows dumped
enough of the debris from the channel
along the st. Elizabeth shore of the Ana
costa to cut off the current in the swash
channel, SO that the tide in it's ebb and
flow no longer cleanses the stagnant shat
lows with their lethal burden. A mastery
inactivity has since settled down over all
this government effort to reclaim the
Eastern branch The eternal processes of
Eature are still at work bringing down
ard depositing the silt from Bladensburc.
looking to the making of a continent; but
nature builds UP her stratas of inorganic
life through the slow lapse of ages, while
a whole generation of the spores of a quo
tidian fever mature in single summers
day. -, :.
AT the hospital the different forms of
Intermittent fever have more than doubled
since the pernicous intermeddling of The
government In an abortive attempt to make
larial germ causes more sickness among
our inmates and employees than ~all other
sources put together. -.
Inasmuch as We did it not unto. one of
the least or these has been indefinitely
postponed" -,
Progress in Other Rexpeets
The report says that in other RESPECTS
there has been a material progress at the
institution during the year. The separate
provision for the epleptic insane has now
peen IN operation long enough to demon
strate its superiority over the former pro-
mlscuous arrangements AS yet no distinct
provision has been made for the coIore5
males. but 1T is the intention to provide a
dormitory for them in the extension 10 tho
west Lodge, for which an Approximation is
asked In the estimates for the coming year
Especial attention is called to the method
now being pursued at St Elizabeth,s ~
having broad piaZzas about hospital build-
iHSs, which allows the infirm to be taken
INTO the open air, much to their benefit.
Most Prefer to Remain.
speaking of the practice of restraining
patients, the report says:
Perhaps one man in ten in a hospital
wants to run away, and should. for his
own good and that of the community. he
Kept by all proper precautions from so do
ing. But why should his infirmfty make
close prisoners of all the rest? There are
lnen and women whom you could hardly
drive away from st. Elizabeth Thav have
lived here for years; they have found in II
sneiter cut OF the worlds storm; it has
been to their distracted lives as II should
De, nome OF the fifty men in Atkins
Hall. working by day, who thinks Ct the
open window as an avenue sof escape ut
night? Has he not all the daytime to run
away in if he chooses? Accordingly h.
uses the window at night to let in air, not
to let himself out The contented Iaborer
ar Godding Croft, where each can sit un-
der vines of his own planting If not under
his own fig tree. Is he, so long as he can
exercise any reason. going away from this
which has come to be his farm, his dwell
ing, the surroundings of his life that
make at last for that little colony their
world, where they can truly say it is good
FOR US to be Eere?'"
Estimates for the Next Year.
The following estimates for the fiscal year
ending June 80, 1899, are submitted: For
current expenses, $a79OOO: general repairs
and improvements $4,000 Buildings and
grounds, viz: Brick sewer to the river
$4,000; dormitory addition to west lodge,
$3.50; chapel building. $4,000: app-opria-
ton, 5000; furniture and heating appar-
atus for pavilion. 5000; new machinery for
laundry. including boiler. $500; reftting
old laundry as shop and dormitory, 81 $50;
20O-horsepower tubular steam boiler for
power house. 5000; increasing water sup
ply at Godding Croft, $3.50. Total S43f 80.
The basis of estimate Is an annual per cap
tia cost of $40 for an (estimated) average
number of 1,725 of the above classes
The sum of $4,000 Is needed for the con-
strucfion of a cement and brick sewer of
sufhcient capacity to carry the. sewerage
from the buildings and the hospital plateau
to point on the river at the foot of the
grounds below the tide level, the distance
being about one-hah mile.
Need of Chapel.
OF the need of a large chapel for the
institution the report says:
1T would seem that the time had fully
come to ask for a distinct chapel, where