The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1901-11-26
MASSILLON HOSPITAL BOARD
HOLDS ANNUAL MEETING

statistics giving number Of recoveries
in state hospitals. The very nature
of the disease makes the figures repre-
senting percentage Of recoveries pliable.
Many persons have apparently recov-
cred full use OF their mentalities
from organic brain disease, though we
know there must be more or less cellu-
lar destruction, and consequently cica-
tricial tissue is substituted.
The very presence in the brain OF
this scar tissue renders probable the
recurrence Of mental disturbance, there
fore the careful and painstaking su-
perintendent is 10th to discharge rs
recovered patients who have suffered
rom organic brain disease. Other
superintendents take into consideration
cnly the manifestations. and when in
telligent conversation, and coordinate
action succeed the unintelligible jargon
and purposeless actions of the mani
ecal patient they are ready to pro-
Eounce him recovered without consid-
ering the pathology which caused his
alienation. This difference in the
viewpoint of the superintendents might
account for some Of the differences In
tie figures giving percentages OF recov-
cries.
| Without egotism we wish to say that
we have endeavored to carefully elm
mate all cases of doubtful recovery
and we have followed the standard set
by the ablest psychologists. The rate
here is satisfactory and equals the aver
age recovery rate in institutions of this
kind. 1t has been claimed that with
better facilities for treatment fully
seventy-five per cent. of recent cases
should recover. We cannot agree with
this optimistic view, though undoubt-
edly our facilities for scientific care
and treatment could be greatly improv-
ed.
NEED FOR REFORM.
Our institution should take on more
of the hospital and less Of custodial
features. 1t is absolutely essential
that the people be educated to regard
the existing system of taking care of
the insane, more in the light of hos
pitals and less Of the asylum. or mere
ly refuge harbors, and this cannot be
done unless the hospital authorities
make them hospitals in fact as well as
in name. AS at present constituted, II
Is lamentably true that our hospitals
are largely merely refugees for the
"wreckage of our social system" where
Is thrown together the raving maniacal
patient, the frenZied melancholiac, the
the overwhelmingly depressed with
suicidal tendencies, the paretic who
exalted by his grandiose ideas rules
the world and destroys his clothing and
the hospital furniture, the senile dement,
who need only care, the chronic and
incurable, the terminal condition of all
forms of insanity not recovered, in fact
every thing in human nature that is
unsightly and troublesome even in
cluding the cases of mania a potie.
This conglomerate mass of diseased
conditions should somehow be better
classified and order brought out OF
chaos. The largest number of acute
cases are patients suffering from some
of the different phases of melancholia
They have succumbed to the strain oi
a long period of anxiety and distress
brought about by the death of a loved
child, some business reverses and Of
ten aggravated by deprivation and
want. They are reduced to state OF
profound desolation of mind and a de
preston so overwhelming that the un.
J happy sufferer welcomes death as the
only escape from a life which has be-
come intolerable. Is 1t right that these
persons should be classed with tho
terminal dement,? These patients suf
fer from physical condition Otter
due to a defective nutrition Of the
highest nerve centres. There is rea
starvation of brain cells-a condition
calling for as prompt and as careful
medication and nursing as any case o.
typhoid or diphtheria. Can this desid
. eratum be reached in our presen
method? We fear not. It seems t;
be the present plan in Ohio to add Il
: the existing institutions until within
, the next decade the average population
in the existing hospitals will not be fa
from 1000 each. Is 1t possible for tn,
, superintendent and his staff of physi
clans to perfectly classify this grea
number and give each patient the in
dividual care which he deserves?
| INDIVIDUAL TREATMENT NEEDED
The acute, physically sick demand
I and gets individual treatment of tn
4 highest order. Shall the mentally sicl
s have less? To care for the Athlete
! is ddbt the furtunate owe to tn
q unfortunate. Do We wish to discoun
: our own paper? Do we wish to give t
: : the acute mentally sick less than he l
entitled to? I think not. The onl
! question is as to the best means q
4 reaching our highest ideal of utility
1 believe that n hOsDital could he huil
/ and fitted up with every applianc
known to science for the bettermen
of this most unfortunate class of pee
v pie at very moderate cost. This hos
pital could then be placed In charge {
e medical men of such ability that ther
. . could be no question as to maximum
Q benefit of the patient. This institr
. ton should Of course Ibe centrally Il
2 Gated and receive all the acute insan
o OF the state. This would not mea
In eSft he. al