The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-06-19

l LIAS pOOA4Cs IO hSlp raise the SCan-
 dard of care for those threatened with | mental disorder or actually i'll; to | promote the study of mental disorders | in all their forms and relations, and
 to disseminate knowledge concerning l their causes, treatment and preven- | tion;, to obtain from every source re- | liable data regarding conditions and
 methods of dealing with mental dis
 orders; to enlist the aid of the Fed | eraI government so far as may seem | desirable; to coordinate existing | agencies and help organize in each | state in the Union a, society for men
 tai Hygiene.
 The nebulous doctrine of leniency | and kindly treatment for the insane
 was crystalized-in certain of the
 more backward states-into a. moving [ vital force, by one who himself had lSgone through the deep waters of men
 tai illness, eventually to find safe 1 footing upon the solid rock Of sanity.
 MT. Clifford W. Beers, a Yale man | who had the misfortune to become
 unbalanced in a manner necessitating
 his confluence ent for three years, may
 be said to be the instigator in the
 movement in America He has re-
 lated his experiences, while sequester- ed, in a biography which will take | high place, both as piece of 1itera- ture, and for the constructive value l of it's sound, practical suggestions. In "A Mind That Found Itself'' he details the methods of restraint" ex4
 perienced by him, in manner which i If even the tithe of what he re-
 lates be true-must bring the blush | of shame to the cheeks of his for
 mer attendants.
 He describes wildly the use of the huff of stout canvas-dfvided into compartments for either hand-the the wrists being afterward locked to- gether by manacles. He shocks usewith a recital of the horrors of the ttcamisoIe," a type of straightsjacket reaching from neck to wait, and laced tightly behind. The sleeves are closed at the hands, and to the end of each is attached a heavy cord. These are securely fastened so as to bring the arms in a folded po- sition across the chest. The lacing 1 is frequently tight as to constrict the proper expansion of the lungs, and the torture of many consecutive days of s'air-hunger,' during which it is worn, may we'll be imagined. It It, seems quite plausible that the l soothing effects of this ''cure'' upon a | highly excited nervous organism are chiefly conspicuous by their absence. The muffs and camiso1es are used, not | because they are more effective, but | because they are "economicaI'' For
 a, pair of ''nitts'' a straight jacket
 may take the place of two or three 1 guards. '-
 sBeers' account of solitary confine- ments in a padded cell are too revolt | ing to publish and any magazine of
 general circulation. On our heads be | the shame for maintaining such un- l speakabIe styes. '. 1 1 Also, according to the testimo=<y- given before the Congressional Com | rnittee, which investigated the gov
 ernment hospital for the insane at | Washington, D. C., untrained attend
 ants seemed prone to resort to the
 use of the wet towel as a, sort of gar
 rote. The most refractory patient
 readily succumbed to this form of 1 ''persuasion.''
 l Of the ''keenfne' ''-which consists of gouging the breath out of an in- mate by the use of the knee-the
 beating, choking, cruel and inhunan l treatment of the insane in some asy-
 1uns' perhaps the less here said the1 | better. I|
 Readers of Charles Reade's 'Hard 1 Cash'' may remember that, in the
 controversy following the publication l of this epoch marking novel, Reade 1 proved that the ribs of insane pa
 tients were often broken by brutal
 keepers, with a fiendish skill and
 devilish dexterity. That similar out
 rages are sometimes perpetrated in at
 least fourteen states of our Union I demonstrates that hte national com
 Inittee for mental hygiene seems to | have adequate reason for existence.
 The civilizing vaccine may have to be l injected with no light hand before l these Q1CSTS OI In0O1d0Vd1lSI1 C1GaT up 1 and shrink into the barbarous past. | And, lest it be contended that these | iniquities no longer exist in America,
 remember that pr. Thomas w Salmon, director of special studies of l the national committee of mental | hygiene, states that Whereas the
 care of the insane in a few enlighten- 1 ed states is matter of just pride, kthere is not a single condition which
 existed in the early period of neglect | oT111 ,SrrJ1 ,7roe ,10+e 5ox
 in some American community" -'
 Dr. Lewe1lys F. Barker, of Johns
 Hopkins, has systematically ex-
 pressed the intent of the association
 ''to secure human brains so naturally | endowed and so nurtured, that people
 will think better, feel better, and act
 better than they do now
 Another matter of criticism in asy- l 1um treatment is the improper clas-
 sification of the demented. It is
 mildly insane among mad-men, as to
 inmure the sane among the insane. And incidentally the use of chem fcal treatAnent", is condemned. This
 restraint consists in the use Cor
 abuse) of temporarily paralyzing 1 dope employed. By it's use ob-
 streperous ana troublesome patients 1 are rendered unconscious, and kept
 so for hours at a time, perhaps, at 1 intervals for even days or weeks 1 Obviously this injures the recupera-
 tive power of brain and body, and
 greatly dirninishes the chances of uI-
 innate recovery.
 So in our model hospitals, instead i of mechanical and chemical restraint, | it is now the custom to substitute 1 the continuous warm bath, in which l an excited patient may be placed and | kept for hoUrs-or even for a, day or | two, if necessary, until his excitabi1- | ity gives way to a fair degree of re- | pose. A canvas hammock with a rub | Der air pillow is swung in a large bath | tub, into which the warm water con tinually floWs-main taining even l temperature. Almost without excep-