The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-08-22
BUILD A new ONE
H. G. Bowman Would Change
Reform School Plans.
Use Present Institution to Re-
lieve Asylnms.
THE NEED is GREAT.
Places Crowded and Something
Must Be Done.
THE NEED is GREAT
Nay Be Necessary to Build
County Institutions.

Turn the state reform school at
Topeka into an asylum for idiots, and
transfer to it all the idiots in the To-
peka and Osawatomie asylums; then
build a new state reform school some
where out in western Kansas. That is
my solution for the present over
crowded condition of the state insane
asylums'
So says H. G. Bowman, member of
the Kansas state board of control,
who has just returned from two
weeks tour of investigation of the
charitable Institutions of Chicago and
Cook county.
Something has certainly got to be
done to relieve the congested condi-
ton of the asylums." continued Mr..
Bowman. Either the state must
build more state hospitals, or the
counties must provide county asyluns-
We have a law here in Kansas which
in some respects is like the Illinois
law. 1t assumes that the incurable
insane are to be cared for in county
asylums. The result of the operation
of this law in Illinois is that the peo-
pie of Cook county have been obliged
to build asyiums and hospitals at
Dunning, near Chicago, which provide
accommodations for more patients
tutions together And those are sim
ply the overflow from the space allot-
ted to Cook county in the regular
state institutions. Unless the state of
Kansas provides increased accommo-
dations for its insane, the counties
will have to erect hospitals of their
own.
There are three general classes of
mental trouble; one class comprises
the idiots and imbeciles; another com
prises the people whose minds have
simply gone wrong; the third includes
epileptics.
We now are supposed to take care of
the idiots and imbeciles at Winfield
the school for feeble minded youth. Only
those under 10 years old are supposed
to be admitted, but when they once get
in, they are there to stay. We have one
man there 90 years old. The board has
authority to admit older patients If in its
judgment it IS wise to do So But the
Winfield school comprises only small
portion of the idiots and imbeciles.
There are hundreds of them mixed in
with the insane at Topeka and Osa-
watomie hospitals. Now there is
wide distinction between the idiots and
imbeciles and the insane. An idiot Is
a being born without a mind; with no
more intellect than stick of wood An
imbecile is being the development of
whose mind has been arrested at an
early age. ImbeciIes can be taught d
little something.
TT is my idea that we should collect
all the imbeciIes at Winfield. and trans
from the boys reform school here into
a hospital for idiots. This would re-
lieve the pressure at the Topeka and
Osawatonie asylums.
1--WE ought to have bigger and better
accommodations for the boys reform
school, and I think the school should
be located spmewhere in the western
part of the state. That Is a matter
which the legislature would have to
settle but in my judgment a hospital
for idiots is essential
1T is bad for the insane to be in con-
tact with idiots and imbeeiles. The in
sane people as rule know their con-
dition, and the presence of idiots and
tmbeciles seems to aggravate and annoy
them. They should be kept separate
'.'The Parsons asylum for epileptics is
doing good work in it's line, and pro-
vides a place for this peculiar form Of
mental trouble. Some Of the epileptics
are sane and some are not but they
usually become insane in time.
Il also think that we should have
some cottages for the tubercular insane.
so that they may be isolated from the
rest of tho T1affe0fSf'