The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1908-06-24


Center of Worlds knowledge of In
sanity.
Construction work on a reception
hospital for suspected cases of insanity
on Manhattan Island is to be begun the
present year, according to DR.. Albert
Warren Ferris, president of the New
York state lunacy commission. Not
only Is there to be provided an i'm
mense institution where those who fear
they are losing their minds may go
without legal commitment for observa-
ton and treatment, but If the plans of
Dr. Ferris are carried out there will be
established pathological and psychia-
trio laboratories and schools with sup
plies of clinical material that will
make New York, and not Vienna, the
center of the worlds sources of knowl-
edge of insanity.
Fundamental to the plan of the new
institution is the idea about to be put
in practice at the Poughkeepsie hospi-
fears Of any one who suspects himself
of incipient madness may be lulled or
confirmed. Provision Is to be made
for about 250 patients of this class,
who will be free to place themselves
voluntarily under observation at any
time at the expense of the state.
In addition to this, however, It is
proposed to move from Wards island
the state pathological laboratory under
the direction of DR.. Adolph Meyer, who
will be at the head of the new institu-
tion, and to establish In connection
with It psychiatric school, the first
of its kind in America. where instruc-
ton in the latest advances of the scien-
tific knowledge of insanity In all its
forms will be provided for the medical
profession of the country.
1--WE shall certainly begin work on
the new building during the present
calendar year." said DR.. Ferris to a
New York Herald reporter. I'VE have
q site under lease from the city at the
foot of East Seventy-third street, and
as soon as the new building Is CON-
pleted we viii be able to do In New
York what the other state hospitals
are already making preparations to do
cases that have not developed into in
sanity and may never so develop.
What we want to accomplish is to
prevent insanity. So far as curing In
sanity goes, the state of New York is
doing as much as Is done anywhere,
but there are hundreds of cases in our
asylums that ought never to have got
there-cases that would not have be.
come insane If there had been any way
of placing them under observation
without legal declaration OF insanity
II have been working toward this
plan for several years. Not only is ii
a good thing from the humanitarian
point of view, but financially 1t will
save money for the state. 1t certainly
will be better to spend few hundred
dollars in curing person who might
have become insane than to have him
become an inmate of an asylum and
cost several thousand dollars before be
dies, to say nothing of the economic
loss of his services.
Beyond all this we are planning Q
great campaign of education on the
subject of insanity. The public gener
ally has wrong idea Of the subject
The mediaeval superstitions concern
ing the madman still linger. We hops
to make the public realize in time that
insanity Is simply disease like any
other disease and that If taken in time
It can often be cured.
"At the same time we hope In thi.
new institution to make such progress
in the study of insanity and Its cures
as to make New York the world cente
for that work. We will be equipped
with the most complete laboratorie
under the charge of the most skillful in
vestigators, and for clinical materia
we shall arrange to have the most In
teresting, battling and typical cases from
all the fifteen state hospitals brought t
New York for study. All Of the physi
clans connected with the state hospi
tails will be required to spend certain
amount Of time each year In study II
the clinical school and laboratories
and quarters will be provided for then
on the grounds while they are here
The medical profession generally will
be welcomed to our clinics, lecture
and demonstrations, and the result
hope, will be wider knowledge Of tn
causes of insanity and consequent In
crease in the proportion Of cures and
decrease In the prevalence of its vari
Gus manifestations.
"Plans have already been made TO
the centering In New York of worl
statistics Of insanity. The records o
every case In the state and private hos
pitfalls of New York are at our com
mand, and with them as basis exper
classification of symptoms, know
causes and postmortem indications
expected to lead to wider knowledg
Of the causes that are are still obscur
and the detection OF symptoms that ar
not now generally recognized a. Ind
eating mental disorder.