The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-03-17
URGES COLONY SYSTEM
Thinks Provisions Can Then be Make
at Comparatively Small Cost.
BANE OF HOSPITALS POLITICAL RULE
The Statements in Miss Dorthea DM's Appeal
in i848 Are Said, by The Speaker, to
be Still True in North
Carolina.

Dr. p. L. Murphy, superintendent Of
the North Carolina Hospital for the In
sane at Morganton, lectured last night
before the A. and NJ. College. The lecture
was heard with the closest attention and
it evidently made deep impression. DR..
Murphy is not only specialist of nation
al reputation, but profound thinker and
a most agreeable speaker and writer. In
introducing Dr. Murphy President VIM
ston said that the one thing in North Car
DINA which we would be proud to show
n Yankee, an Englishman. a Frenchman
or German, as comparable to his, is the
product of the brain and heart of DR..
T. L. Murphy-the Western Hospital for
The Insane. The subject Of his lecture
was 1.-The Treatment and Care of the
Insane in North Carolina, What it Was,
What it is and What it Ought to Be"
DR. Murphy began by sketching attempts
made to care for the insane in North
Carolna the first effort being by the
Legislature of 1926, when a resolution
was passed to the effect, THAT it is ex-
pedient to establish and endow Luna
tic Asylum in this State" Nothing came
of this effort. The speaker then elo-
Quently described the great work of Miss
Dorothea Dix, of Massachusetts, who,
during the summer and fall Of 1S4S, at her
own expense, personally visited forty OF
the then seventyseven counties in the
State, travelling in stage coaches and
private vehicles along the rough roads OF
that day, gathering information as TO the
number and condition of the insane in
v-iTrCr h &c
formation in a Memorial to the Legisla-
ture of that year. Miss DiX's efforts re-
suited in the erection of the State Hos
pital at Raleigh which was finished and
ready for patients in 1856. DR.. Murphy
declared that Miss Dix was the greatest
of all great American philanthropists
He quoted freely from her Memorial TO
the LEGISLATURE setting forth in detail
the condition of the insane on that day
and the necessity for providing for their
treatment.
The speaker then discussed rapidly
the old-time idea of insanity as an evil
spirit and hospitals as riotous bedlams
and traced the growth of a more humane
and intelligent public sentiment, which
has expressed itself in North Carolina
in the erection of two additional hospl-
tails one for whites at MOrganton ana
one for negroes at Goldsboro These three
institutions now care for 800 patients
The present hospital accommodations
for our insane are entirely Inadequate
Dr. Murphy knows personally the names
of over three hundred insane people who
cannot be accommodated in the western
Hospital They are in Jails, III poor
houses. in log cabins, or wandering ABOUT
the country, many of them without proper
clothing or food. terroriZing women ana
children. a menace to the community and
= shame to the State. These afflicted peo-
nle deprived of reason, have rlgnt 10
a fair chance to recover, whether they
are rational enough to demand 1T or
not and those who are sane should see
IN II that this right is granted them II
is not humane, economical, or just, not 10
nroyide early and proper treatment and
care for this helpless class. The late
DIR. Gray, of New York, estimates Tor
one hospital in New York that there
was a loss to the public of over mil
lion dollars by delays in sending patients
TO the hospital. In North Carolina
the delays are caused by the State, which
fails to provide adequate hospital accom-
modations, although they might be pro-
vided at comparatively small cost.
SIT may be of interest to know how the IN
sane are cared for in hospitals. There IS NTH
to saw. The patients are kindly treated, but ar
made to recognize discipline. They are not al
lowed to do as they please any more than san
people. They lead regular wholesome lives, to-