The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-03-07

Fred G. Smith was cdiieo 70 pA09
at the Board of Health meeting yes
terday in the absence of President L.
e. Pinkham. other members present
being DR.. J. r. Judd, David Kalauo-
kalani. DR.. j. T. Wayson and Mark
P. Robinson.
In a message the president recon-
mended that the Legislature and the
| Governor be requested TO have the
| loan appropriation for Insane Asylum
buildings renewed at this session, the
balance if any to be used in establish
| ing an infirmary.
With a few remarks of approval, es-
pecially of the infirmary annex pro-
posal, DR.. Wayson moved the adop-
ton of the recommendation. Mr.. ka-
lauokalani seconding the motion it was
| unanimously carried.
ssThe Oahu Insane Asylum requires
your attention." President Pinkham
opened his message by saying. Under
date of March he was informed Of
fcially that the balance, s52,459, of the
| loan appropriation for new buildings
had lapsed. ssThat institution is over
crowded." the message proceeded, land
imperatiyely needs q new building for
men, a new dining room and a new
kitchen
The president therefore recommends
that a request be made for a reap
the buildings and their furnishings as
needed, and any balance to be used
to establish an annex to the Isane
Asylum to be designated as an infirna-
airy. He quotes the following remarks
from his report of Dec. 81, 1906:
TAT times persons absolutely poverty
stricken, friendless and suffering from
extreme physical and mental weak
ness, rather than insanity, even to inn
becility and consequent filth, are COM
mitted to, received and cared for at the
Insane Asylum because there is no
other refuge for them in the Territory
os Hawaii. The Board of Health will
not contest such commitments"
President Pinkham then inserts a
letter from DIR. N. B. Emerson, police
surgeon, to Sheriff C. P Iaukea, which
he says the latter most emphatically
endorses" DR.. Emerson says:
I'm the performance of my duties
as police surgeon it devolves upon me
to examine large number of persons
who are brought to the station house
as suspects thought to be insane, or
who are held for investigation These
people may be classified as follows: 1.
Victims of the liquor-habit, either in
the acute or chronic form. 2. Per-
sons found helpless through physical
debility and abject poverty. 8. Per-
sons who are subject to hysterical or
nervous attacks that suggest insanity
or that lie near to it's border land. 4.
Idiots and imbeciles. 5. Insane per-
sons. The station house is the first
place Of detention for these people be-
cause there is no other place available.
Each one Of these classes besides
the fifth furnishes it's quota of insane;
but the process of determining which
are insane and which are not, of
searching out the data on which to
base the diagnosis of insanity, when
that is made, and finally OF gaining
the attention OF the court for the con-
sideration of the case, is not a task
that can always be accomplished in
a day; 1t may require several days.
Now. an insane person is not per Sc
a law-breaker, and it is not just or
seemly that during the time when he
is under investigation he should be
confined in the same enclosure with
criminals, or be subject to the indig-
nifty of association with them.
Again. 1t is often the case that
these people need special medical at
tention and nursing during this very
period of examination. and the lack of
it may act unfavorably upon them.
The same facts and reasoning apply
to the physically wrecked and power
-