The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1900-01-18

! hospitals. as well as from Columbia and
FreedmenS. which. although considered as
| public institutions. are not subject to the
control of District officers who are charged
with the duty OF providing charitable hos
pital care for those in need.
NIr. Lewis suggestions.
1t this condition were so modified that
any sort of case could be sent to any hos
pital in which there might be vacancy
probably sound and reasonable distri-
button az admissions in view Of the in
] terests of the hospitals and all their in
mates. would leave the condition much as
70 is now. and the chronic and incurable
charity cases. ana many others for whose
care the expensive wards of a hospital
equipped for the care of acute and surgi-
cal cases would be inappropriate. would
still have 10 be provided for.
Under the present arrangement and dis
tributfon of appropriations in lump sums
to a number Of small hospitals. the Dis
trict does not receive an adequate return
in service for the expenditure This is
true because the small number of pa
tients i'm each hospital calls for an expen-
diture per capita nearly double that which
would be found necessary could all be
| brought together and classified under a
smaller number OF officers and employees.
The administrative expenses OF an in
| sttutiOn for 800 patients would be pro-
portonately very much less than one for
fifty patients II would certainly be most
unlikely that per capita expenditures. even
apprCximating the experience of the small
hospitals during the past year, would ever
be necessary.
There is a strong and growing senti-
ment in this community favorable to the
creation OF an institution for the scientific
treatment Of inebriety. This sentiment
Will call for recognition in no uncertain
voice in the near future Our present al
tempts to deal with il are primitive and
exceedingly unsatisfactory. 1t is within
the memory Of men now living that in
sanity and imbecility were treated as de
mOniacal possession. to be cured by ridi-
cule and torture. or eNterminated by cruel
neglect. n we would Yindicate our claim
| 10 a place in the foremost rank of civili-
zatiOn We must cease to treat the inebri-
ate and dipsomaniac as a criminal, and
give him the benefit OF the resources Of
modern science as has been done in the
case of the insane and the imbecile. That
his disease begins in a vice and may be
said to be self-inficted cannot change the
matter at all. Many forms Of insanity are
OF the same quality.
Men taken in charge by the police for
I the protection OF themselves or the COM
munity from the effect OF the excessive
/ use Of alcoholic liquors or narcotic drugs
/ arc usually sent to the Washington Asy-
/ lum, either as hospital patients or work.
! house cOnvicts. In either case they rot
/ infrequently develop violent symptoms.
( and sometimes clearly defined delirium
/ tremens- Under such circumstances they
! are placed in a little room adjoining and
| opening on from one OF the wards of this
/ hospital. and it may and docs sometimes
! happen that the dying hours of broken
! down but altogether respectable citizens
/ are made hideously awful by the raying OF
! a creature, himself not far from the
! door OF death. Such scenes are not pleas
4 ant in contemplation. We must take
| away the necessity for the enactment OF
them in real life by providing other and
I better arrangements for the treatment OF
J inebriates.
Provisions for the Insane.
There are persons before the courts
. occasionally whose actions indicate that
/ they are mentally irresponsible. 1t is diff
| cult for the judges 20 de ermine whether
/ they should be sent to prison as a punish
! ment for their misdemeanOrs or to a hos
! pital for treatment. Such cases are sent
1 TO the Washington Asylum for Observa-
/ ton, or TO be held for further hearing.
4 There they are confined in basement
/ room having single barred window high
| above their reach a barred door concrete
! hoor. and without furniture.
AT night they are given u mattress,