Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-12
FREED FROM BLAME
Dr.. White of st. Elizabeth Ex-
onerated. -..zll
SPECIAL COMMITTEES VIEW
Result of the Congressional In
quiry.
METHODS IN USE INDICATED
Comparisons With Institutions for
the Insane in Different Parts
the Country.
SPECIAL COMMITTEES VIEW
[ETHODS IN USE INDICATED

The Olcott special committee of the
House, which spent considerable time at
the last session of Congress investigating
charges preferred by the Medico-Legal So
ciety of the District in connection with the
administration of affairs at the Govern
ment Hospital for the Insane, across the
river, has decided to make its report In
time for use by the subcommittee of appro-
priatlons which has charge Of the sundry
civil bill. The annual appropriation for
the maintenance of the hospital Is includ-
ed in this bill, and the members of the
Olcott committee feel that their recon-
mendatons concerning the institution
should be in the hands of the sundry civil
subcommittee members when they get to
work on the measure
DR.. White, superintendent of the hospital,
yesterday afternoon forwarded to Congress,
through the Secretary of the Interior, a re-
quest for an appropriation of $4,000 for the
purchase of eighty-One acres of ground
south of the institution premises, for use
as a site of cow barns in connection with
the dairy farm of the institution. This
appropriation, for instance, will be strongly
recommended by the Olcott committee.
DR.. Whites Methods INDICATED.
AS heretofore stated in The Star, the re-
port of the Olcott committee will completely
exonerate DR.. White Of the charges brought
against him, as the head of the big insti-
tuition, by the Medico-Legal Society. Not
only will he be exonerated, but some very
complimentary things will be said by the
committee concerning the manner in which
he has administered the affairs of the hos
pital since he succeeded DR.. Richardson as
superintendent.
The committee is a unit so far as this
particular feature of the report is con-
cerned. There is a division of opinion,
however, concerning the various recon-
mendations which 1t is proposed to make.
The question of the proportion Of attend
ants to NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. the Institution
now has sufficient number of employees or,
If not, just how many more should be pro-
vided for-and other matters of this kind,
remain to be decided. Outside of these
deba table propositions, however, there is no
disagreement in the committee whatever.
All the members seem to think that the
Government Hospital for the Insane, as it
is now conducted, is certainly model in
stitution.
mttee were all pretty we'll of this opinion
at the close of the investigation last year.
What they at the various institutions
to which the members of the committee
made individual visits during the summer
recess made them stick the more strongly
to this view.
Comparison With Other Places.
n
been described by members Of the commit
tee as almost medieval. Many of them
were merely prisons for insane persons
and not wholesome prisons at that.
At st. Elizabeth the proportion of pa
tients under restraint is on an average
about one in 900. At one of the institutions
vlsited-and an institution in big and pro-
gressive city at that--the proportion was
one in twenty. And this too, despite the
fact that the most advanced theories in con-
necton with the care and treatment of the
insane frown upon the use of mechanical
restraints except when absolutely necessary
that is, when the lack Of restraint would
endanger the health or life of the patient
or the safety of other patients or attend
ants.
Moreover, ST. Elizabeth has the most
modern equipment for the care and treat
ment of the insane, and In this respect, Is
rather an exception to the general run of
such institutions. At many of them the
insane are merely confined and are not
given any treatment whatever, and the per-
centage of recoveries Is very low indeed.
The percentage of recoveries at ST. Eliza
beth, the report will show, compares favor
ably with the figures of the best institutions
of the United States and foreign countries.
1t is understood that the report will speak
in the highest terms of the medical depart
ment of the hospital and of the manner In
which the individual treatment of the in
sane is carried on.
So far these general matters are con-
cerned the report could be put in tomorrow,
or as soon as it could be written out but it
is on the question of recommends lions that
the delay will occur. But, as stated, the
committee intends to get the report before
Congress in time for the use of the SUBJ
committee which will prepare the sundry
civil bill, carrying appropriations for the
maintenance of the institution, and it Is
81 n OhViafa he off IF
a minority report. 1t is thought that the
committee will finally get together on all
points.