The morning journal-courier., 1908-03-16
PLEADS FOR INSANE
Continued from Seventh Page.)

eficent rich may be prompted to come to the aid of the states and nations by supplying funds for the erection and endowment of model institutions wherein mental and nervous diseases, Ill their incipient and curable stages, may be treated with maximum effieien- cy. With such institutions, hospitals and sanatoriums in operation, thous- ands of those who now are committed indiscriminately could be restored to health and society without having suf- fered the unfair stigma of legal incom- petence: and patients in our state hos pitals could then receive that individ- ual treatment whech will insure the re- covery of many of them, and, at the same time. enable those who do not recover to lead comfortable, even hap py lives"
 As is so often the case MT. Beers mental Arrangement came as the re- suit of I needless fear. He had a brother who died of an epileptic fit in 1894, while he was a freshman in the Scientific school. The event had a very depressing effect upon him, the continual felr being that he, too, would De attacked with a similar fit at any time. This feeling developed with him little by little until, one day in June, 1900, four years after he graduated from college in an attempt to end his life he jumped from the fourth story Of his home in New Haven. Mir. Beers was taken at once to Grace hospital for treatment where his Arrangement became worse and his fears began to widen their scope.
 His confinement at the hospital was during the Yale commencement and in referring 10 this incident, he said Had my health been good I should at this time have been participating in the triennial of my class at Yale. In- deed, I was q member of the triennial committee and though, when left New York on June 15 l had been feeling ter ribly i'll; had then hopes to brace myself for the anticipated pleasures of the reunion. The class reunions were held on Tuesday, June 26-three days after my collapse. Those familiar with Yale customs know that the Harvard baseball game is one of the chief events of the commencement season. Headed by brass bands all the classes with reunions falling in the same year march to Yale athletic field to see the game and renew their youth--using up as much vigor in one delirious day as would insure a ripe old age if less prodigally expended. These classes. with their bands and cheering, accom- panied by thousands of other vocifer- atng enthusiasts, march through West Chapel street.-the most direct route from the campus to the field. His terror at that time as he went on to explain in length was that he had so disgraced his alma mater that thous- ands of returning alumni were determ- ined to drag him from his bed and tear him limb from limb as an example to others.
 From a beginning in Grace hospital MT Beers was taken from one instltu- ton to another. He described the abuses of them all He is not over prone to criticize even when it is well deserved, as is well shown when he says of an assistant physician:
 Tt is not a pleasant duty to brand any physician for cruelty and incom- petence. for the worst that ever lived has undoubtedly done many good deeds. But here is the type of man hat hau helpless insane-a type which unfort- unately is still too often found (not only found soon enough) in our private and public institutions. It therefore seems but fair that the men whose destiny puts them in touch with one who has lived to publish his story should at least bear the brunt of illustrations.
 In June, 1901. year after his jump out of the window, Mir. Beers found himself m a large endowed asylum near New Haven. In describing the place in his book he says he cannot speak too highly of the religious scr vices held there every day. He says that perhaps nothing can more soothe the diseased mind of the insane or melancholy than the simple habits of prayer and he calls upon the minis ters to hark his words and realize their call in this direction.
 The book is full of just such practi- cal suggestions for the care of the in- sane as the above He also recom- mends that good. wholesome books be available foi the inmates of these in- stitutions in every ward.
 The first step in the readjustment of his mental processes MT Beers traced to single instance where by means of clever ruse he proceeded in con vince himself after two years of doubt that his own brother was in truth his brother and not detective on his scent After vlvidly describing the psychological moment he contin- ued: "This was the eliminating mo- ment of my graduate readjustment The molecules of my mental magnet had at last turned in the direction of right thinking In a word. by mind had found itself My memory during this phase might be likened to a pho tographic film. 79S days long. Each | impression seems to have been made in negative way and then, in a frac- ton of a second, miraculously devel- oped and made positive.
 "No man can be born again, but l believe I came as near it as ever a man did. To leave behind what was
 in reality a hell, and, in less than one second have this good green earth re- vealed in more glory than most men ever see it in, was compensating privilege which makes me feel that my suffering was distinctly worth while.
 It was during his period of conva- lescence, which began at that iuncture that MT. Beers witnessed the brutali- ties that were practiced on patients He described at length his own at tack on an attendant who by force was dragging a sick patient out of