The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-03-17

contend constantly against this trouble. Pa
tients who are noisy and agitated are soothed
by kind words and by physical exercises IN WORK
or long walks or amusements The timid ana
melancholy are brought forward and made to
mix with the others, to engage themselves IN
writing, in reading, walking, &c The helpless
and infrm, those who have no minds and merely
vegetate can only be kept clean, difficult mat
ter Their wants are simple; food, clothing,
warm and wel-lighted rooms. Hospitals are
not what the general public think IN the way OF
strange sights. They are more like well order
ed quiet homes. visitor to our hospital after
passing through the institution, and seeing all
the insane patients, some at work, some at
play, some sitting around, said 4 have see
a number OF people that work and play, now
let me sec some insane people lie would
hardly believe that he had seen the whole inst-
tuition
DR.. Murphy described fully the States
provision for the care of negro insane
at Goldsboro and paid the highest tribute
TO DR.. Miller the superintendent He
said, THE negro insane in North Carolina
have been as we'll cared for and treated
as the whites. DR.. Miller is devoted
to this work, and has given it the benefit
of a benevolent heart, the wisdom OF
careful manager and the skill of a good
physician. No man can carry into any
business greater enthusiasm than he has
in his noble work. Dr. Murphy spoke
with appreciation of the removal OF the
criminal insane to the State Prison. This
step" he said, has relieved the hos
pitfalls CT a dangerous and an objectionable
class OF patients who were and would al
ways remain a menace to the insane. IL
was. too in accordance with the modern
idea that criminals should be kept sepa-
rate from those who have committed no
crime. 1t is best for both classes"
DR.. Murphy made an eloquent plea for
enlarged hospital accommodations, de-
claring that the State is now providing
for less than one half of it's insane citi-
zens The others are kept in jails, poor
houses and private homes. They have
right 10 be cared for and they can be-
without great expense. He advocated
very strongly the Colony system Of care
for the chronic insane, thus providing
homelike surrounding and also making
room in the hospitals for durable insane
not now admitted for lack of room.
owe have three hospitals in North Carolina
near each of which should be established colonies
Tor the reception OF all chronic male insan
or needing treatment could remain in the hos
pitfalls and many additional durable cases could
be received. For women, should be erected
cottages or pavilions near the hospital, with
gardens, poultry yards and other means of pro-
noting t-G:oor exercises, suited in each case
TO their previous lives and their tastes He
declared this plan to be unquestionably best
for the insane, as well as cheaper in first cost
abobl1 oba no
A most intelligent lady patient who was treated
in Morganton and recovered, wrote to DR.. Muir
ply after going home and suggested that the
women patients needed facilities for phys
zeal work. She said the women got together and
cossipped because they did not have work enough.
She suggested the plating of straw hats. Thi
adv's suggestion was emnently wise. Some
sort of work should be supplied. to all insane
women who are capable of work, sewing, spin
ming, knitting, carding, quilting, making mats,
gardening, raising poultry, &C., &c. There is
need also of amusements to suit individual tastes,
reading, music, anything in fact that is agree
able and pleasant. We greatly hampered for
want of means of supply these.
'sThe bane of most American public hospitals
is that they are governed by politics. This
should not be: for sooner or later the blight OF
partisan Juror Will reach, HOI 50 illuCH OH tiit
officers and nurses, for whom individuals
| no one cares, but on the patients, who are al
ways the ones to suffer. Time and again have
| seen efficient officers removed for political
| causes and even good nurses hard to obtain as
| they are, replaced by inexperienced and unde-
sirable tones. Thus the noble cause OF humanity
has been dragged into the mud of partisan poit-
ics''
DR.. Murphy closed his address with a
quotation from Miss Dorothea DiX's Me-
mortal to the Legislature in 1913, rs fcl-
lows:
II come not to urge personal claims not to
seek individual benefits. l appear the advo-
cate of those who cannot plead their own cause;
| come as the friend of those who deserted,
oppressed and desolate. In the Providence OF
God | am the voice Of the maniac whose piercing
cries from the dreary dungeons of your jails
penetrate not your halls of legislation. am the
hope of the poor crazed beings who pine in the
cells, and stalls and cages and waste-rooms
OF Your poor houses. I the revelation OF
hundreds OF wailing, suffering creatures, hidden
in private dwellings and in pens and cabins
shut out, cut off from all healing influences,
| from all Misunderstanding cares
What was true in 1S4S of the insane In
| North Carolina is true to dav God
| hasten the time when this just oppro'
| brium no longer rests on our beloved ma
| iva