The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-07-02
"ON[Y A PACK OF:
LIES" SAYS NELSON
Then He Gives Excuses for Pat
tents Dying at Minneapolis
Police Station.

"I will make no statement. This
thing is a pack of lies, gotten up by
my enemies, and I do not propose to
discuss the matter. I have been at
tackled on all sides ever since came
into office, and I have become cal
loused."
So declared Henry S. Nelson, the
city physician of Minneapolis and head
of the city hospital, when asked re-
garding the refusal of his assistant
DR.. Gray, to permit Martin Roach, who
died in a police station cell, to be re-
moved to the city hospital. on the
ground that he was suffering from
delirium tremens and his rawlings
would disturb the patients in the in
stitution.
The autopsy showed that while
Roach was victim of alcoholism, he
was also a sufferer from pneumonia,
and. his delirium might have been
caused by this rather than from liquor.
The doctor declared he would not
discuss the case, but he continued as
follows:
"The police at the lookup are bet
ter able to take care of tremens cases
in cell than we are at the city hos
| pital. What would you have me do?
Take a raving maniac into the city
hospital, where we have typhoid fever
| cases? His rawlings would have driven
patients from out our wards.
rs it not better that the healthy
men who are confined in the police sta
| ton should be disturbed by the raw
ings of tremen patients than that
the sickly persons in the city hospital
should be compelled to flee from the
place under the misrepresentation that
| their lives are in danger?
THE members of the board of chari-
ties and corrections" continued the doc
IL t1l f,io
rule of admitting only bed-ridden pa
tents, and while it is true I have adj
mitted tremens cases occasionally, it
has been only when the patient was in
| danger Of dying.
This man Roach had money to pay
| for his treatment at another hospital
and offered to pay for his care. The
| police say he was not RATIONAL and
why was it he was not taken to another
| hospital which receive these cases, or
to some sanitarium which makes a
| speciality of tremens?
THE funds which are placed at my
| disposal for the maintenance of the
| hospital are not sufficient to provide
| for a ward for delirium tremen cases
and until the board provides the funds,
| conditions will have to remain as they
| are
The death of Reach has emphasized
| the fact that the city should possess
| some other place than central police
station Cell No. 10 for the accom-
mediation of persons who may be suf-
| fering from delirium tremens, and
| medical practitioners are loud in their
condemnation of the system which has
| prevailed for many years.
Mayor Haynes, who is ex-officio a
| member of the board of charities and
| corrections, which has charge of the
city hospital, says a thorough inVeSti-
| cation will be made and it is possible
means will be found to provide prop
| er detention ward.
The state board of control. says the
mayor, is supposed to see to it that
| there are proper accommodations for
| the detention of men who are in the
| condition in which Roach was found,
| but so far as he knows there is no
means of forcing that body to act
| should it take no steps toward causing
the installation of such an institution.
u