Amador ledger., 1906-11-16
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA HOSPITAL.
BY Arthur j. PIllsbury, Secretary
State Board of Examiners

The Southern California Hospita
tor the insane is unfortunately, evel
inhumaneIy, located. Its situs is no
far from the gateway into southern
California and it gets to be about a
hot as the gate hinges. The com
munity round about is prosperou
and steadily becoming more SO, bu
it is not dramatically the right plac,
tor sick persons. At time of tn,
year when depressed sane womanhooC
all over California is being sent from
the interior to the coast OF to the
mountains to recuperate, depressed
insane womanhood is being sent where
the therm ometer sometimes records
lis or 116 degrees, and for days at 6
time, the mercury hovers around liz
degrees. That such a location should
have been chosen when the laws give
such ample latitude and longitude fol
the exercise of souuder and more
sympathetic discretion implies that
considerations other than the we'll
being of the sick people to be treated
must have predominated.
The Best Made of A Bad Bagain.
However, the institution is there.
over against the sun-parched hills of
San Bernardino and there it Is likely
to stay until some trem blor comes
along and throws it down, an even
tuality which may be looked forwa1 d
to with conf dence in the fuIness of
time. BY keeping the patients all
out OF doors during rot weather and
the window shades all closed until
nightfall, a condition that cannot be
cured is endured with minimum of
hardship and maximum of comfort
ing philosophy. Fol we'll persons
such location would not be serious
ly objectionable, but those that are
we'll need not the seaside but only
the sick, and of the sick none need
it more surely than those who are
sick in mind and heart. Perhaps,
someday, if there be a bit of seabeach
lett along the coast of Los Angeles or
Orange counties, not converted into
a Midway" or "Pike'' or "Trail''
generous California may see fit to
establish a supplementary hopsitaI,
under the same management, for the
care of persons sick with melanchoIia
or depressed vitalities which will be
sanitorlum indeed and not a grid.
iron. have such location in nv
minds eye and 1T belongs to the state
too.
No Lack of Beauty.
Otherwise than regarding summer
temperature, the location of Southern
California State Hospital for the in
sane leaves little to be desired. 1t is
slightly, 1900 feet above sea level and
on the pictured brim of the San
Bernardlno soup plate of valley.
the position of the institution Is com
handing. Watching the purple lights
OF morning and evening playing above
the lower levels and along the noun
tain bounded valley brim one can
form some conception of what the
dawn of creation must have been like
when the morning and evening we're
the first day. The institution itself
does not loom up so commandingly as
its thousand feet of breadth and four
stories of height might lead one to
suppose that it might for the treason
that, when seen from across the
valley, it sits banked up against a
great, irregular foot mountain, i'm
measurably more commanding than
itself. hut if any of the patients are
lucid enough to enjoy an opportunity
to see out, and to watch the blinking
electric lights OF Redlands and San
Bernardino verify, they have their
| opportunity.
The Plant.
The site of Southern CaIiforn ia
Hospital comprises about 400 acres,
and these acres are not mere acres
but are acres of good land. The soil
dissolves in water with the readiness
of brown sugar, but it is many feet
deep and full of plant nutrition.
This condition results in two
irrepressible conflicts keeping the
winter floods which come down from
the mountains just back of the in
stitution, from cutting lnnumera BILE
enguling arroyos through the farm
and getting enough water for irriga-
tion during the rainy season. The
state will have to spend a lot of
money-some tens of thousands of it
for building storm bitches of stone
and concrete for carrying off those
sudden downpou1ings of thunder
storm waters from the hills in the
background and the sooner that is
done the smaller the expenditure that
will be called for. The supply of
water for irrigation is ample in wet
years, but during seasons of deficiency
in rainfall in the mountains the
supply becomes rather meagre. For
domestic use two tunnels have been
driven into the conglomerate hills to
the rear of the institution. One CT
these penetrates 200 feet and the
other 100 feet. Both together yield a
continuous flow of IL inches of
nearly chemically pure water, having