Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-13
BARBARIsM

~ conditions which disgraced Cali
fornia at Patton. Twas ever thus. 1t
is societys method of seeking vindi-
cation, and by some Sancho Panza of
the long ago was crystallized into the
proverbial expression, Locking the
stable door after the horse is stoS
len" The point is, of course.
the conditions which have result
ed in the murder of at least
one patient OUGHT NEVER TO HAVE
BEEN ALLOWED TO EX1ST. Their
existence should have been made i'm
possible by the adoption Of system of
inspection which would really have
inspected, of supervision which would
really have supervised.
The unfortunate experience of other
communities in the United States and
in England in the care of the insane
has shown the only reasonably safe
plan of management is rotation of
nurses. No attendant should be allowed
to remain in charge of any ward until
he becomes its tyrant. with his favor
ties and his objects of aversion. his
patients to pet and his patients to
pound.
There is a mysterious feature of the
case which will need to be explained
fully before the public will believe there
was not an official attempt to conceal
the true cause of Grassmee's death. DR..
Wilson issued a death certificate in
which the cause of death was stated to
be 'paresis and exhaustion" Surely
it is incredible that physician of Dr.
Wilson's training, experience and
ability did not know the cause of death
was NOT paresis and exhaustion. Why,
then. did DR. Wilson assign cause of
death not in accordance with the facts?
If the certificate was not the result
of unbelievable ignorance on the part
of the certifying physician, then some
personal motive must have led that
physician to risk the forfeiture of his
professional reputation by giving a med
ical certificate which was a misrepre-
sentation, and naturally had the result
of giving the weight of official author
ity and expert skill to a delire crate false
hood. The public will expect Dr. VIII
son to explain why he returned such
death certificate; and will expect the
management of Patton to explain why
it countenanced this misstatement and
aided and abetted what seemed like a
deliberate attempt to shield the insti- !
tuition or some one connected with II
from the deserved consequences of a
murderous act of brutal and irresponsi- |
BILE inhumanity.
In view of the concealment Of the
truth and of the evident attempt to
mislead the public. the management of
Patton will be asked to tell whether the
Grassmee case is the only instance OF
homicidal mistreatment of patients.
Have any other patients met the fate
Of Grassmee? This man had friends, |
therefore his crushed body was not
committed to the grave in secrecy.
But have any friendless patients been
done to death by brutal, careless or
irresponsible attendants? If so, how
many citizens have met this fate at
Patton? What has the management to |
say on this point? And why did the
MANAGEMENT allow the institution to
become a man-killer instead of man
healer?
While the fate of the unfortunate
man who was kicked to death by a
brutal attendant may cause an up
heaval" at Patton, we think it is an
upheaval of the system that is needed |
as well as of any institution which may
illustrate it in all its primitive british
ness, stupidity, folly and cruelty, which
have formed subjects of comment by |
writer's and philanthropists for a half
century Civilization, which has made
wonderful advances and discoveries in
other departments of science, is as
ignorant as it ever was of proper meth |
DDS of treating brain-sick members of
society.
In the old savage days, when mans |
body was feeble or sick. the members of
his tribe considered him fair game, and
thugged him out of his existence. In
modern days, when a mans brain is
feeble or sick, he is delivered over to
the untender mercilessness of some un-
trained, ignorant yahoo that in a mo- |
ment of brutal frenzy stamps the God
given life out of him. 1t is the fault of
society, which has not yet emerged
from barbarism.