The Washington times., 1901-07-28
SCENES AT ST. ELIZABETH
Bedridden Patients Affected by
the TOrrid Weather.
Everything Possible Done for Their
COmfOrt-NO> Cases of Insanity
TrnceabIe to the Heat-Queer Char
actcrs and Their Authorizations.

While Washington has sweltered and
suffered during the extraordinary July
weather, she has been more fortunate
in one respect that many of her sister
| cities So far as known, none of the
| Capitals citizens have lost their rea-
son because of the heat. In other large
cities all over the country men and wo-
men have become insane as q direct re-
suit of the unusually high temperature.
At the Government Hospital for the In
sane the patients have suffered. but
under the circumstances they have far
| ed fairly well.
Have you received any patients
whose malady was due to the excess
sive heat?" asked Times reporter of
DR.. Richardson, the Superin of
St Elizabeth's few days ago.
No; / cannot say that we have"
answered the superintendent. Num-
erous cases here have been aggravated
from that cause, but none that we can
say with certainty is directly due to
! it. Our bedridden patients have suf-
! fered the most. We have two hundred
of these, and Iuring the very hot nights
we have had such of them as could be
moved out on the verandas that sur
round their buildings. By the way.
would you like to go through the wards
! II these patients?"
The reporter asserting, he was en-
| trusted to the care Of a messenger, a
| young soldier from the Philippines and
/ himself a patient, who took the repor-
ter across the grounds to where the
buildings containing the sick wards are
! situated. Here the reporter was some
what unceremoniously. introduced to
| the doctor in charge by the patient
messenger and was taken by the for
mer through the hall of his neatly fur
/ nished residence, out On yeranda
which ran around the building.
The doctor evidently took pardona-
BILE pride in the grounds on which this
veranda faced, and which, as he ex-
planned. he had himself planned. Ar
bors, summer houses Oor the most part
the work of patients), trees. vines,
flower beds, and bushes were arranged
in most attractive fashion. From this
scene Of cheerfulness and beauty it was
sad to turn into one of the wards where
the wretched sufferers drag out their
existence, surrounded, 1t is true, with
all the comfort and attention that train
ed skill can render.
Most. if not all, the inmates of these
sick wards are aged veterans of the
civil war. Here they lie in long rows,
some of them mere skeletons, and many
so feeble that it is a marvel how the
vital spark exists at all. One man, his
features as sharply accentuated as
those of corpse, lay beneath mos
quito netting, in a semi-comatose con-
dition, in which he had been for several
days as a result of the heat.
I'VE have had twelve cases of pros
tration in these wards and two deaths
as a result of the hot weather so far"
said the doctor.
The patients in the surgical wards
present, perhaps. the saddest spectacle.
1t was a strange contrast here to see
a young female nurse, the picture of
blooming health and beauty, with rich
brown hair and eyes, and a rosy COM
plexion, bending over a veritable liv-
ing skeleton. Passing along one of the
porches one noticed the beds upon
which the two patients had recently
died, placed here to be repainted, as
is the custom in such cases.
Every thing in the sick wards, of
which there are four, divided according
to the nature of the disease treated in
each, is well ordered and scrupulously
clean. The same is true throughout
the entire asylum. Adjacent to the
buildings containing the sick wards is
the Relief Building" so designated,
the doctor explained because its erec-
ton was such a relief to the crowded
patients. 1t is a large structure, con-
tanning seven or eight wards, divided
according to the class of patients in
each.
There is notable variety of the
forms Of insanity to be seen among
the inmates of this building. There are
two specially constructed rooms for vio-
lent cases, happily unoccupied at pres
ent The windows and doors of these
rooms are strongly barricaded and the
only piece of furniture in each is
Z, u. L
seen to that there are no projections
upon which the occupant could hang
himself. or any other means by which |
he could do damage to himself or 9TH
ers.
1t is customary to encourage the pa
tients to go out in the grounds and, |
wherever possible, to give them some |
occulpa fiOn The inmates sometimes de- |
veiop extraordinary lines of industry |
on their own account. The reporter |
was showr: the room of a man who oc-
cupied himself in constructing varie- |
ty of devices out of the pits of prunes, |
plums, and ether fruit. This small |
apartment was veritable curiosity |
shop, Uttered. as it was, with knick- |
scription. Boxes with glass fronts, con-
tanning miniature grottoes made of
prune stones, adorned with figures made
of paper or tow; baskets of fruit pits of |
the most complex designs, requiring
great ingenuity In their construction,
doubtless. but fit for no practical pur-
pose were among the articles.
A man approached the visitor in one
of the corridors and held before the lat
ter's eyes a newspaper neatly folded so
as to disclose certain picture. That's
a very pretty picture of the President
and his wife" said the doctor. and the
man departed apparently thoroughly
satisfied.
''Huilo. why aren't you boys outside
on no tr1' |