The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1905-06-02

medical superintendent of the Manhat-
tan State Hospital, East, gives a
graphic account Of tent life as tried
under his direction for large number
of insane consumptives. The follow
ing extracts are from his paper in the
Directory of Institutions and Societies
dealing with Tuberculosis in the
United States and Canada:
That consumptive insane patients
may be kept, and treated, to their adj
vantage and incidentally to the adj
| vantage of their fellow-inmates, in
canvas tents, and throughout the sew
eral seasons of the year, has been
demonstrated in the recent history OF
the Manhattan State Hospital, East.
The experiment upon the success OF
which this claim is advanced has COW
cred a period of forty months.
In all hospitals for the insane the in
mates are classified according to the
form of mental disturbance. To take
from all these classes any suffering
from tuberculosis and put them to-
gether in one tent was serious prob
lem. This, however, has been very
successfully done. The original plan
was to use the camp only about five
months during each summer.
The camp first established consist
ed of two large dormitory tents
twenty by forty feet-each containing
twenty beds, with smaller tents of
different shapes, about ten by ten
feet, for the accommodation OF the
nurses. the care of the hospital stores,
pantries and dining tent for such
patients as were able to leave their
beds and tents, and go to the table for
their meals. Running water was Sc
cured by means of underground pipes,
and the safe disposition of waste and
sewage was also provided for.
AS has been said, it was expected to
continue the camp only through the
summer and as far into the autumn
as favorable weather might render
iustiiable But when in the late au'
tumn it was found that the favorable
experience continued, it was decided
to attempt to carry the experiment
on moderate scale, into, or even
through, the approaching winter. The
camp, as first established, had been
placed upon an elevated knoll adjacent
to the riverside and purposely exposed
to the full force Of the summer
breezes. For the winter experiment
it's site was removed to the center Of
the island, where trees and building:
, interposed to act as Wind-break II
the severe storms from the east ant
northeast which are to be expected II
that locality. The number Of patient!
was reduced to twenty, those in whom
the disease was most active being re
tanned and the others being returned
, for the time being, and much agains
r their will, to the buildings. One larg
l tent suffices for the housing at nigh
Of the reduced number of patients
and one was set apart as sitting
room for day use, with the accessor,
tents before mentioned, and larg
stoves were placed in them, here an
9 there, with wire screens surroundin
them to protect the patients, and
liberal use of asbestos and other fire
- proof material and arrangements 70
the prevention of fire.
. To make long story short, it ha
remained in continuous use, not onl
throughout the first winter, bu
through the two succeeding winter
and intervening seasons, UP to tn
late of the present writing. The scop
q If it's employment has been gradual
enlarged until all patients in Whol
here are active manifestations
:, .uberculosis-an average of fort.
i hree out of a total census of abol
2,000-are isolated therein, and ther
r las been parallel enlargement OF tn
elements of the plant.
The isolation of the tuberculosis p
tents has reduced to minimum tn
hanger of infection Of other patient
= md of employees. The patients Their
g selves have suffered no injury or har
Is ship, but have, on the contrary, bee
70 Enthusiastically benefited. This is show
% among other ways, by a decrease
u the death rate from pulmonary tube
10 culosis, both absolute and relativ
% and by a marked general increase
y bodily weight, amounting in the ca'
'. If one patient to an actual doubling
y The weight-from eighty-three to OF
~ hundred and sixty-six pounds-in fou
- teen months of camp residence.
y Mental improvement has as a gene
al rule been the concomitant Of phy'
= cal, not only among the patients in t!
a. tuberculosis camp, but also in Il
49, others, and in the former class tn
~ has been somewhat of an anomal
Il, My experience, and l think that
I'll others, has been that when phthis
: and insanity co-exist they are apt
~ alternate as to the prominence of the
~, several manifestations-the ment
10. symptoms being more pronounc
~, oh