Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-04-11
Surgery Curing Insane
BY EDWARD NJ. THIERRY


TRENTON, N. J.-Revolutionary
strides in solving the problem of
the insane have been taken by DR..
Henry A Cotton medical director
of the New Jersey State Hospital.
Insanity loses many of its terrors
these things DIR. Cotton has done:
Proved that two out of every
three '~'incurable" cases are cura-
BILE.
Showed that physical disorders.
such as infected teeth and tonsils
and infections of stomach and in
testines. cause more insanity than
heredity.
Demonstrated that proper ARE
Of the health will prevent insanity.
Turned an asylum into a clinic, a
Jail into a hospital.
Discarded all straight jackets and
other forms of mechanical restraint.
Rescued 1000 patients, twothirds
of whom would be called 'incurably
insane" in the last three years.
Reduced New Jerseys insane pop
ulation. saving s116,000 this year.
Curative and preventive measures
must be begun early, says DR.. Cot
ton who has given to the world the
remarkable results of the work done
at Trenton State Hospital in his
book, The Defective Delinquent and
Insane
Early Treatment Is Essential
Treatment in the first few months
or within the first year is necessary.
After three or four years the case
is hopeless.
Unfortunately for the many
chronic patients confined in hospi-
tails for tile insane today" he says,
their disease has progressed to h
stage where remedial therapy is en-
tirely unsuccessful. There are at
Trenton 900 cases of dementia
praecox, none of whom will ever
recover.
"Over SO per cent of the perma-
nent residents in state hospitals be-
long to the dementia praeeox
group. Practically all Of these
cases could not only have been pre-
vented bur their symptoms arrest
ed after the onset. if the method
of eliminating chronic infection a
been applied early in the course or
the disease.
There can be no excuse for
failure to treat such cases in early
stages now that the cause is known.
Relic of Medical Superstition
"The o-nothing policy of those
who continue to oppose any form OF
treatment, because they are con-
WINGED that insanity is hereditary
and therefore inevitable and incura-
tie. is a relic OF medical supersti-
ton and barbarism."
Insanity is increasing in America
four times as fast as population
DIR. Cotton shows by statistics. A
quarter Of a million persons are IN
insane asylums, not counting those
in almshouses. prisons AID reform
atory. New York and Massachu-
sets have the most insane in pro-
portion TO population. and Arkansas,
Alabama, Oklahoma and New Mex
leo the fewest.
surgical operations to correct
physical defects have reclaimed
many of New Jerseys insane. As
against 81 per cent discharged prior
to 1914, "a per cent were cured IN
1918, IS per cent in 1920 and 20 per-
cent in 1921. Elsewhere in the
United states, says DIR. Cotton, not
over % per cent of insane patients
are sufficiently improved 10 pc as
charged permanently.
"Herecitary insanity exists in only
a little more than one-half OF the
patients ciassed as incurable. says
DIR. Cotton. Infection is the
cause oftener than insanity in the
family
Never Have Failed TO Find Infection
MANY cases occur n which sucn
causes as love affairs. disappoint-
meme in love, domestic difficulties,
conjugal disharmony and financial
reverses are considered to be the
only cause. In these cases We have
never failed TO find serious and often
extensive infection
Following the removal OF TINS IN
lection, If the disease has not been
of too long duration. the mental dis
turbance Is very apt to adjust Itself
when proper treatment OF n
insane becomes generally effective
throughout the country many pa
tents now doomed to lifelong con-
finement in hospitals for the insane
and 10 n mental darkness to which
death is far preferable, can and VIII
be restored not only to mental health
but in many cases 10 2 HE on use
Iulness.
In terms Of dollal Or. cotton's