Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-04-17
CONDITIONS At
MORRIS PLAINS
ASYLUM SHOCK
Board of Managers Reports
There Are 1900 Patients,
700 Over "Maximum."

: That there has been no abatement
y of the appalling conditions in the
n New Jersey State Hospital for the
4 Insane at Morris Plains was revealed
4 today in the annual report of the
= board of managers to the Governor.
3 Every day the overcrowded asylum
+ Is in danger of holocaust or an cpl
q demic. There are 200 patients In eX-
: cess of maximum capacity. Dement,
II ed men and women sleep in corridors
a and in ill-ventilated storerooms. The
4 water supply is polluted. The corps
of nurses is totally inadequate.
9 Proper classification and treatment of
patients are impossible.
+ So grave Is the situation that the
= proportion of cures has dropped to
less than 20 per cent, startingly
> low figure.
y The hazardous state of affairs at
\ the hospital was first exposed In the
:. Evening Star two years ago. With
z an increase of 100 inmates a year the
9 congestion is worse than ever.
''Relief must come or calamitous
: conditions will be the result, and that
soon,' is how the board of managers
puts its formal appeal.
This crowded condition." the report
r continues, lis as hurtful to the attend
ants and nurses as it is to the pa
TENTS; the latter are frequently wake
= full and noisy and the former cannot
but be disturbed and rendered less fit
& for their long hours of continuous
a duty This order of service naturally
L. of
nurses, but we lack accommodations
4 for them. as will be seen in the fact
that at this time about 400 patients
have no sleeping place in rooms and
have to sleep upon cots put down in
! tho corridors at night and removed in
the morning, so as to render the corri-
doris inhabitable for the. patients dur
ing the day
Overcrowding Retards Cures.
"The percentage of recoveries based
upon the number admitted, was 1875;
this is low percentage. compared
with former years, and is accounted
for, largely by the overcrowded con-
dition of the institution"
a Or. Britton ID. Evans, the medical
& director. in his statement, says:
1t can be seen, without lengthy
explanation, that If twenty three
hundred persons are placed in space
4 intended for sixteen hundred, that
proper separation, classification or
3 segregation cannot be effected.
q The hospital population shows the
usual annual increase. 1t was at the
y close of the hospital year 2,302, over
8 700 in excess of its normal capacity.
: Although this continued overcrowd-
ing has been given prominent men.
Z ton in numerous annual reports and
4 especially emphasized in the last, the
4 attention paid to 1t has resulted in no
relief nor has any evidence or promise
of relief exhibited itself,
In many rooms SO many patients
/. must be placed that 1t does not allow
: any of them to have a proper amount
OF fresh air either day or night, The
! outbreak of any severe epidemic
would be attended by disastrous con-
sequences for the reason that those
\ III would be so closely in contact with
the infected that a general spread of
y the Infection would be unavoidable.
1.-THE overcrowding of this hospital
is now little short of a calamity. In
many parts OF lnlS loSplldi the pa
tients are herded together and hy-
gienic conditions are sacrificed. This
continued overcrowding not only
works an injustice TO persons already
/. admitted for care and treatment, but
4 1t is almost inhuman to those who
3 are being admitted from day to day"
( in addition. DR.. Evans asserts that
s the water supply is polluted.
1T has been definitely determined.
he says, that the hospital water sup
! ply is contaminated"
The members of the board of man
ayers are as follows:
james Nj. Buckley. president; Pat
I rick j. Ryan, vice-president; John c.
g lsiselo, John II. ellison, George w.
Jagle, John Nevin, Albert Richards,
Z w L. r. Iynd.