Arizona republican., 1906-05-18
ARIZ0NA'S HOSPITAL
 FOR THE INSANE
The Things Visitor Saw at the In-
 stitulion.

Ithe writer chose Friday for a visit, and was cordially invited to spend the day
 in making investigations.
 pr. Ray Ferguson is the present su- lperintendent. In addition to having served, when a, student, as interne in
 an insane asylum, he has kept in touch with the progress made in recent years ir the methods for treatment of the mentally deranged and is, perhaps, as liable to cope with conditions as they exist in our asylum as any one. AL ready he has initiated the movement of reform. The greatest and best results, however, can only follow certain radi- cal changes not to be accomplished
 single-handed.
 Perhaps the first thing to strike one familiar with the modern and humane treatment of the insane is the system of housing the inmates, and the lack of cottages, of which there are but two on the premises. There are about three hundred patients in the territorial asylum, and the grounds are ample, but for years large portion of the 160 acres set aside for the accommodation
 of the insane has been devoted to the growing of alfalfa.
 Almost the first requisite for the successful treatment of insanity IS
 fresh air and sunshine. In trip through the main building what does one see? In each of the wards devoted
 to the women. the bedrooms-small clean cells with heavy wooden bars for idoors-open into a long corridor, light ed from one end. This dark and mar
 row hall is the patients sitting room.
 A little streak of Gods good sunshine falls across the balcony and occasion ally streams a short ways into the cor ! ridor, where a score or so of women | pace up and down or sit in sullen siI-
 ence. These are not the violently in sane; there is no reason, indeed why they should not be out of doors getting
 the free gifts God meant for all his
 creatures. And since pr. FergusOn's
 coming all who may be trusted outside spend many hours a day in the open.
 It is a matter of almost common l knowledge that if one violently insane 1 is taken from confinement in which his
 rawlings have made hideous both night and day and granted the boons of fresh air. warm sunshine and the room to stretch his limbs in, he will give his
 keeper no more trouble while the treat
 ment lasts.
 There is no hospital ward in connec- ton with the asylum and when one of | the women is taken i'll she is put to | bed in a single room which has one
 window by way of ventilation. Through ! the wooden bars that serve for d dCC-
 all the other women in the ward may look; there is no privacy for the ill.,
 and the noise of twenty or thirty peo-
 pie, who are practically in the same room with a sick person, is not. to put 1 it mi dly', conducive to speedy recovery. ! When a man is sick he is perhaps even
 less comfortably situated than the vo-
 men. for there are for the men no sin
 r~T. T1,asv- f# #r,rsfcaa
 modate from three to sixteen and like ] the women's rooms. open upon long corridors, insufficiently lighted, which serve as sitting rooms. In a climate | like this there should be open-air dormitories, in addition to the winter
 sleeping rooms. And there should be-
 as well, few of those high, open en-
 closures seen on the grounds of many
 eastern asylums in which both men and women may safely be permitted to , indulge in the heaIthful outdoor recre-
 ations that strengthen the body and | help. in some measure, to clear the disordered intellect.
 | Connected with many of the modern
 asylums there are also training scnOo's
 for the attendants, or nurses. which 1 they are. in the properly conducted
 asylums Already Dr. Ferguson has begun a quiet wedding out among the employees and a new intake of young
 men and women. who will be trained 1 to their duties as ably as conditions : permit: and these conditions should be
 made as nearly perfect as possible; for mo training can be too high, no nurs-
 ing too skilful, no tenderness to great
 for the most unhappy of our people
 the insane. This is no place for ig-
 norance. however kindly Wisdom and
 patience and gentleness go far toward restoring an impaired intellect, while | Ignorance and harshness go quite as
 far in the opposite direction.
 l A visit to the lavatory suggested the Ineed of modern shower baths. Old fashioned zinc tubs, not even portable. 1 are here. Tn first-class hospitals of | this kind-and an insane asylum should
 be, first of all, a hospital-tubs are now practically discarded, except for spe- | icial purposes. such as the prolonged | hot bath in which some patients live
 for days at a time-even eating therein and gaining the relaxation of muscle and nerve necessary to bring sleep to their fevered eyes and quiet to their brains.
 The cottages afford possibilities in strong contrast to those of the main building which houses the majority of | the patients. At West cottage one en- l ters a sunny front room, off which is lounging room for the occupants Windows on two sides let in the sun shine, and in it lie, or sit, or walk ten or dozen men, drawing in pure air
 at every breath. The dormitOry here is crowded, however, in the endeavor to let as many as possible benefit by the comforts of the place. Upstairs a screened-in balcony runs around the sunny sides of the hou-e, and here, too, in a flood of sunshine. oask those for tunate enough to have been assigned i to the cottage. Fresh air and sunshine are in every room. Are these small l things? Go through the sitting rooms of the main building and then ask.
 Fridays visitor was admitted into
 the ward for the violently insane-a place not usually open to visitors The