American Asylums for the Insane
- Author:
Pliny Earl, ESQ., M.D.
The report by Dr Bell, of the McLean Asylum, for the year 1851,
is, like most of its predecessors, very brief, and is mostly devoted to a de- scription of the method by which the Cochiuate water has been introduced into the buildings of the institution. A disbeliever in the value of statistics in in- sanity, the Doctor makes his practice consistent with his theory by restricting these data to the simple facts?or, as he would say, ” facts and opinions” of admission and condition at the time of discharge.
Men. Women. Total. Patients admitted in course of the year “Whole number in the Asylum Discharged ….. Remaining at end of year Of those discharged, there were cured Died … ” Of the deceased, eight were not under seventy years, and one was over ninety.”
Tn the report for 1852, it is stated that ” the call for room, during the past year, has far exceeded anything in our former experience. It is withm bounds to say, that we have been obliged to refuse more female patients than we have received, and probably as many of both sexes as we have admitted. * * * * Our last year’s experience demonstrates that another institution of the magni- tude and character of this is as urgently demanded as have been any of our previous substitutes and extensions, which have, one after another, raised our aggregate from the less than seventy, whom I found on taking the charge, to the nearly three times that number we have been obliged to find a place for during the past three or four years.” 89 79 168 185 179 364 90 83 173 95 96 191 40 35 75 15 14 29
Reports of Institutions for the Insane in the United States. 1. Of the McLean Asylum, for 1851 and 1852. 2. Of the Butler Hospital, for 1851 and 1852. 3. Of the Retreat at Hartford, for 1851 and 1852. 4. Of the Maine State Hospital, for 1851 and 1852. 5. Of the New Hampshire Asylum, for 1852. 6. Of the Vermont Asylum, for 1851. 7. Of the Boston Hospital (Paupers), for 1849, 1850, and 1851 TJ 2 Hence the Doctor recommends that another establishment, disconnected from the McLean Asylum, and intended for females alone, should be founded. ” There are no advantages,” he observes, ” of which I am aware, in having the insane of both sexes in one institution of this kind, whatever may be the case in pauper establishments, or where labour is expected of the inmates. On the contrary, there are many inconveniences and disadvantages. The customary arrange- ment of patients of both sexes in the same place, doubtless, had its origin in the expectation that only so many sufferers could be aggregated as would be sufficient for the full employment of a single directing head. It seems not a little singular, that a custom entailing so many objections should have been continued where its original basis had ceased to exist.” Men. “Women. Total.
Patients admitted in the course of the year . 145 Discharged 135 Remaining at the end of the year … 201 Of those discharged, there were cured 37 35 72 Died 11 4 15 Admitted from 1837 to 1852, inclusive . . 2339 Recovered ” ” ” . . 1173 Died ” ” ” . 271 2. The number of patients in the Butler Hos- pital, on the 31st of December, 1850, was . 50 03 113 Admitted in the course oflS51 … 33 35 68 Whole numbgr …… 83 98 181 Discharged 22 32 54 Remaining, December 31, 1851 … 61 66 127 Of those discharged, there were cured 8 18 26 Died 7 9 16 Causes of death.?Chronic mania 8, “Bell’s disease” (typho-mania?) 4, paralytic affections 2, meningitis 1, extensive pulmonary and intestinal disease 1.
The returns of the United States census, for 1850, give the number of the insane in Rhode Island as 233, or 1 in 633 of the population. In 1850, the legislature of the State appointed a commissioner to inquire into the condition of the public poor, and the insane. He visited all the towns, with a single ex- ception, and reported the number of insane as?paupers 143, all others 140, total 283, or one in 521 of the population. Dr Ray remarks, that ” guided by such information as we happen to possess in regard to the immediate question, and generally, by the amount of error such inquiries usually present, I think we may safely say that an addition of 50 per cent, would better express the actual truth. This would make the number of insane 420, or one to every 351 of the inhabitants.
The increasing prevalence of insanity, which is implied by these statistics, induces Dr Ray to a discussion of one of the most productive causes of this fearful malady?defective or perverted education. ” The gross neglect,” he observes, “of the moral powers, those which guide the passions and determine the notions, is the crowning defect of the education of our times, ruinous in its consequences to the health, both of body and mind.” He recognises “the home” as the place in which children should be taught ” to acquire the power of governing passion and resisting the impulses of the lower appetites, of dis- cerning the nicer shades of right _ and wrong, of sacrificing self to the call of benevolence or duty, and, amid trial and change, steadily keeping in view the great purposes of life. The time has never been,” lie continues, ” when this kind of training, in its highest condition, was very general in our countrv; but I submit, as a matter of fact, whether, imperfect as it has been, it has not greatly declined during the last few generations ? Unquestionably, at one time, the domestic rule was needlessly rigid and disagreeable, and led to an asceticism of manners equally prejudicial to the mental health and the moral welfare. * ** *# At present, however, we have little to fear from this source, the danger all lying in the opposite direction. The asceticism of our ancestors was infinitely less injurious than the licence which characterizes the domestic training of their descendants. How many of this generation complete their childhood, scarcely feeling the dominion of any will but their own, and obeying no higher law than the caprice of the moment. * * * * * The legitimate result of these defects in the education of our time is, that finally the ordinary virtues of life are degraded to a very subordinate rank. Patient and persevering industry, with its slow aud moderate rewards, honest frugality, and a temperance that restrains every cxccss, frequent and faithful self-examination, clear and well- digested views of duty, become distasteful to the mind which can breathe only an atmosphere of excitement, craving stimulus that rapidly consumes its ener- gies and destroys that elasticity which enables it to arise from every pressure with new vigour and increased powers of endurance. * * * * * The conclusion of the whole matter is, that insanity must necessarily increase in our community until the moral faculties shall be subjected to a higher culture, both in the school and the family.”
Report for 1852 :? Men. Women. Total. Patients, January 1, 185*2 … .61 66 127 Admitted in course of the year … 39 62 101 Whole number 100 128 228 Discharged ……. 36 50 86 Remaining December 31, 1852 . . 61 78 142 Of those discharged, there were cured . 30 Died 15
Causes of death.?Acute mania 2, chronic mania 5, Bell’s disease 3, general paralysis 1, apoplexy 1, phthisis 1, heart affection 1, suicide 1. ” As usual, several deaths occurred within a day or two after admission, from that very fatal form of cerebral disease, which, under the various names of ‘ meningitis,’ ‘ brain fever,’ ‘phrenitis,’ and ‘ Bell’s disease’ (and he might have added ‘ typho-mania,’ the most common of all), has now become very common in our establishments for the insane.”
This paragraph is quoted for the purpose of calling the attention of the general practitioner to the peculiar form of mental derangement therein mentioned. It is becoming quite common, particularly in large cities, and it is a form in which the unpractised physician is almost certain to pursue a deleterious course of treatment. I once had two eases sent to me by one physician in the course of a few days in both of which liberal venesection had been practised. They died, as 1 believe such patients invariably do, after general bloodletting. It appears to be acknowledged, by all who have had experience in the treatment of this special form of mania, that a fatal result can be avoided only by active stimulation. Dr Bell’s description of the disease may be found in the Journal of Insanity, for 1819 or 1850.
Dunn”- the lirst live yecirs of tlic operations of tlic ,13irtlcr iiospitcilj 4:91 patients were admitted, 127 discharged cured, and 80 died. During a greater part of the vcar for which the report is before us, the number of patients exceeded what was originally supposed to be the utmost limit of the means of accommodation. .
In this report, as in its prcdeccssor, Dr Bay takes up the subject of the semeiology of insanity, and handles it with that masterly power which is exhibited in all Ids efforts, wherever he writes seriously and in earnest. 27G AMERICAN ASYLUMS FOR THE INSANE. We caai only give a general idea of this valuable, interesting, and truthful essay.
“Special and particular cases of insanity,” lie remarks, ” no doubt there are, but the immense disparity between our own and all other times, in the Srevalence of this disease, can only be attributed to the peculiarities which istinguish it from all other times. The press and the rostrum, the railway and the spinning-jenny, the steam-engine and the telegraph, republican insti- tutions and social organizations, are agencies more potent in preparing the mind for insanity than any or all those vices and casualties which exert a more immediate and striking effect. This is the price we pay for civiliza- tion, and we shall continue to pay it, until that very distant day when men will have learned the difficult lesson of using their blessings without abusing them.
” The present is an age of great mental activity all over Christendom, and especially with us. The amount of it now required for maintaining the ordi- nary routine of the world, would have passed all conception a century ago. Especially has this been obvious in that constantly progressive enlargement of the field of industry, whereby the attention of men has been turned to an in- creasing variety of pursuits. * * * * * When we consider the amount of thought that has been concerned in bringing the manufacture of a pin, or a screw, to its present state of perfection, we may have a remote conception of the amount of that kind of mental exercise which is required in creating and conducting the countless processes of human industry. * * * * * “No single incident of civilization has contributed so much to maintain the mental activity of modern times, as the art printing. * * * * * The multipli- city of books and of readers not only evinces a degree of mental activity which, a century ago, would have been thought to be scarcely within the bounds of possibility, but much of the literature of the day is more or less directly addressed to the lower sentiments of our nature, thereby impairing that supremacy of the higher which is indispensable in a healthy, well-ordered mmd. * * * * * It is accessible to every reader in the land, and a large portion of those whom it attracts will be found among the young. If any one is disposed to doubt the accuracy of the fact, or the magnitude of its evils, let him look through any asylum in the country, and there will he see many a young man, once remarkable, perhaps, for endowment and promise, presenting one of the most loathsome and hopeless forms of disease, and will learn, upon examination, that in many the evil originated chiefly in the reading of books addressed to the imagination and passions. When we consider, too, that cases of this kind seldom recover, and thus add, by accumulation, to the actual amount of insanity in the world, the fact will account for much of its recent increase.
” Much of the mental activity that characterizes our people arises from the abundant opportunities that are offered for the pursuit of wealth, and the con- sequent variety and novelty of the enterprises undertaken for this purpose. * * * * * The result (of fortunate speculations) all can see and admire, but few know anything of the wear and tear of mind by which it was achieved, of the laborious calculations, the anxious moments, the sleepless nights, the joy of success, the apprehension of failure. Indeed, our ways of doing business, our notions of property, our ideas of happiness, all indicate, as strongly as traits of character can, that a large portion of our fellow-citizens habitually live and move, and have their being, under an extraordinary pressure of excitement which brooks neither failure nor delay. “-r * * * * The cracking strain of all the faculties most conccmed in the management of business, the hopes and fears, the joy and the sorrow, the anticipations of success or defeat, produce a rapid consumption of the mental energies, which strongly predisposes the mind to msanitv.
” Over and above tliat mental activity which is excited by the ordinary pursuits of life, there prevails among us a disposition to penetrate into un- trodden fields of inquiry; to construct new systems of philosophy and science; to become absorbed in themes of a special and peculiar character; and espe- cially to speculate in whatever is strange or mysterious, whether in the natural or the spiritual world. * * * * * We question everything; we pry into everything; and, in our opinions, we bring many things to light. * * * * * Animal magnetism, biology, communications with the spiritual world, are now discussed by multitudes with a deeper interest than they ever manifest in those immutable laws of nature which, if understood and observed, would vastly enlarge the sum of human happiness. * * * * * Wc are naturally led to another manifestation of the mental activity of our times, especially im- portant as being the prolific parent of many others. The intellectual educa- tion of the voung, on which we are disposed to pride ourselves so highly, is more calculated to stimulate a few of the mental faculties than to produce the harmonious development with the strong and healthy condition of all. * ?- ? -s- jt may mflke brilliant and showy men, not incapable, in fact, of producing a sensation in the world, but it will not preserve them from the seductions of fashionable systems in philosophy or morals, nor fit them for meeting the practical exigencies of life in the best possible manner. * * * * * Under a more rational training, we have a right to suppose that a multitude of subjects which now seriously engage the attention of men, with no better results than to weaken, if not destroy, every conservative principle in their minds, would never be entertained, and thus a prolific source of insanity would be avoided.
” Another mental habit of our times, strongly calculated to produce an un- healthy condition of mind, is that of concentrating the thoughts and interests upon a single idea. Whatever subject is deemed worthy of promotion, whether it be morals, politics, literature, or religion, that object is thence- forward regarded as of paramount importance, compared with which all others sink into insignificance. By the individual, it is believed to be the great qiiestion of the day, and destined, like Aaron’s rod, to swallow up every other. * * * * * At last, he gets to think that there is no hope for the race beyond the pale of his little ism or ology; and in his zeal for propagating it, he is ready to ride, roughshod, over the most deliberate convictions and most cherished sentiments of his fellow-men. * * * * * This habitual con- finement to a very limited sphere of thought, tends to invest the favourite idea with a false colouring, if I may so speak, which distorts its natural proportions and relations, until it finally assumes all the characters of a delu- sion. * * * *
” Another characteristic of the present generation, deserving of notice in this connexion, is a remarkable proneness to excess and exaggeration in all its intellectual manifestations. Truth is supposed to require a high colouring to make it sufficiently impressive; while the calm, the plain, the moderate, whether in the subject-matter or the form of expression, is apt to be regarded as ‘stale, fiat, and unprofitable.’ * * * * * High-sounding words are mis- taken for depth of meaning, extravagance for intensity, and the feverish heat of a jaded fancy for the fervors of a true inspiration. * * * ? * To be popular, philosophy must abound in startling theories, and challenge our strongest and dearest convictions; education must aim at apparently great results, rather than the vigorous growth and symmetrical development of the mental faculties; poetry and romance must lay bare the morbid anatomy of the heart, iu order to find the real sources of moial life and the true prin- ciples of social organization. * * * * * It cannot be questioned that this fondness for the intense, whether real or mock, is unfavourable to mental lxcalt.li, axxd lias contributed, iix some degree, to the recent iixcrcase of insanity among us.
” Perhaps nothing is better calculated to foster the kind of mental activity iix question, than the practical working of our rcpublicaix institutions. * * * The political agitation, which is never at rest, around the citizexx of a republic, is constantly placing before him great questions of public policy, which may be decided with little knowledge of the subjcct, but xxone the less zeal? perhaps with more. * * * * “Whatever be the occasion, lie feels called upoix to Ixave an opinioxx of his own; axxd if aix eye to tlxe main chancc shows it to be unsafe to speak out his thoughts, tlieix his ingexxxiitv is exerted to coxxccal tlieux by xneaxxs of false issues, double-xueaixing, axxd xxoxx-coxnmittal, axxd the amoxxixt of mexxtal exercise xxecessary for this end woxild suffice, half a dozen times over, for the ordinary roxxtine of life. But the mental activity which is excited directly by free institutioxxs is xxot confincd to political matters. It pervades every sphere of action, every exercise of thought. The almost absolute frccdoxxx from restraint, axxd the indcpexxdeixce of foreign control, even ixx opinions merely, lead to a certaiix hurry and impetuosity of the vital move- ments, and an impatience that seeks for rcsxxlts by extraordinary effort ox- superficial methods. * * * We rush iixto every strife, axxd take sides iix every questioix that agitates the public rnixxd. * * * “VVe have no idea of any divisioxx of labour here, and tliixxk oxirsclvcs as competent to sit in judgment on qucstioxxs that have accidexxtally beexx brought before the public lxotice, as they who have made them the study of a lifetime. If, in this way, every man is xxot his own doctor, or lawyer, or minister, yet lie enters, with the zeal of a partisaxx, ixxto every coxxtest betweexx rival systems of mcdiciixe, law, and diviixity. * * * How different, in this respect, is the presexxt generation from all the past, ixx which people were qixite satisfied, ixx regard to certaixx sixbjects, with taking their opixnons upon trust, in the belief that others might be better qualified, by educatioix and experience, to form thenx than they were them- selves, and thereby avoided oxxc fertile source of that excitement and agitation which prepare the mind for insanity.”
This is but a mere skeleton of the articlc before us; but, iix the language of the article itself, it is ” exxouglx for those who arc disposed to profit by the warning; and too much, probably, for the larger number, who will regard it as merely aix ingenious speexdation.”
Near the close, Dr Ray asks, “Whoever heard of a book on mental dietetics, or has the slightest sxxspicion that the health of the mind may be affected by the manner ixx which its exercise is managed ?” This query is xxow satisfactorily answered, by the admirable little treatise, by Dr Pcxiehterslcben, cxxtitlcd ” Dietetics of the Soul,” originally published at V ienxxa, but translated and republished in London. A few copies have bceix imported, and foxxnd an immediate sale. Although it coxxtains some extravagances, yet it should lie read by every physician, as a certain modicum of the doctrixxes inexdeated therein would be of cssexxtial value in gcxxeral practice. 3. The report for 1851 from the Hartford Iletrcat gives the following statistics:? Men. Women. Total. Patients, April 1, 1851 . . ? .72 85 157 Adxxxittcd in coxxrse of the year … 68 90 158 Whole nxxmber …… 140 175 315 Discharged … . ? ? .52 82 134 Remaining, April 1, 1852 , . . 88 93 181 Of those discharged there were cured 26 42 6S Died 9 13 22 Causes of death.?Consumption 2, chronic inflammation of the intestines 2, AMERICAN ASYLUMS FOR THE INSANE. 27(J cancer 1, apoplexy 3, general paralysis 2, paralysis 5, dysentery 4, exhaustion 2, general debility 1.’ Nine years ago the daily average number of patients was Si ; during tlie year covered by this report it was ICS. The following remarks by Dr Butler will apply with equal truth to any good asylum, and the ideas therein contained should always be considered in making an estimate of the utility of institutions for the insane: ” The bene- fits conferred by the institution will not be correctly appreciated, if estimated alone by the number of those discharged as recovered. Among those who leave us as more or less improved, or whose mental state is reported as stationary, are many who have received benefits little less in importance to themselves and their friends, than that of restoration to sanity. These take with them, besides an improvement of their general health, greater ability to take proper care of themselves, to control their impulses, and to make a better use of their remaining powers of body and of mind. If patients cannot be restored to reason, it is something to have acquired habits of cleanlinesss and decency, of peaccfnliicss and industry.”
The “custom, so common in Continental Europe, of connecting with the institution for the insane, chaplains, whose duty it is to visit the patients daily, has met with but little favour upon this side of the Atlantic, and the lletreat is the only asylum at which it has been adopted. The numerous and grave objections to the plan have there been overcome or rendered nugatory by the rare qualifications of the incumbent. Were all clergymen facsimiles of the late Thomas H. Gallaudct; did they understand human nature, psychology, and insanity as well as he; and had they that peculiar natural adaptation to the placc which no individual training or effort can attain, the custom might be generally followed, and, undoubtedly, with material benefit. ” His equanimity and calmness,” says Dr Butler, ” checked the unduly excited; his suavity and quiet dignity calmed the turbulent; his kindness, cheerfulness, and wit, with his ready repartee, cheered and amused the desponding; while his rare conversational powers, and his fund of anecdote, and of general and useful knowledge, made him the welcome companion of all. His aptness of illustration, the happy manner in which he applied practical religious truth to the varying circumstances of the different patients, together with his quick perception of individual peculiarities, gave him ready acccss to every mind, especially to that class of religious monomaniacs who are difficult of approach, and whose minds appear most obstinately closed against right and natural views. * * * He seemed to bring sunlight with him into our household, and he left its cheering influences in every heart.” The report for 1852 is from the pen of Dr E. H. Hunt, who acted as physician to the lletreat during the absence, on a voyage to Europe, of Dr Butler:?
Men. Aomen. Total. Patients, April 1, 1852 SS 93 181 Admitted in course of the year … 66 71 140 Whole number 1^7 ^21 Discharged . ? ? ? * * * 151 Remaining, April 1, IS53 …. 80 90 170 Of those clischarged, there were cured 32 62 64 Died 11 10 ,21 Whole number, since opening of the lletreat . 2318 Discharged, cured 1267 Died ?…???? 213
It appears from this report, that there arc no statute laws in regard to the confinement of patients in the lletreat. Dr Hunt very justly remarks, that ‘ the security of the public demands that some simple and readily accessible 280 AMERICAN ASYLUMS FOR THE INSANE. means of approximately determining tlie fact of insanity, by means of a careful investigation of eacli case by some independent and impartial tribunal, should be provided by legislation, and tliat its requirements, in all cases, be complied with.”
Dr Hunt suggests that, in order to “render the institution worthy, at least, of the entire confidence of even the most timid and exacting,” there shall be “a regular monthly visit of two of the members of this board, who shall make a thorough examination of every part of the institution, and learn the reason for every apparent indication of severity or neglect.” Now, the Retreat, among its immediate officers, has a chaplain, who, by virtue of his sacred profession, ought not to brook the least maltreatment of the patients; it has its ” Board of Managers,” and a ” Medical Board,” both of which, as appears by the report, make ” frequent official and unofficial visitsand it has a “Visiting Committee of Ladies,” numbering seven persons. If all these guards arc insufficient to prevent the evasion of abuses, it would seem that prevention is impossible. They are enough, at least, to render the labours of the superintendent sufficiently onerous; and, if the proposed committee be appointed, Ave -would advise him, unless he wishes soon to be compelled again to flee to Europe in search of health, to suggest still another committee?a “llesident Committee for the Reception of Committees.”
That which Dr Bell very properly terms ” the tittle-tattle,” in regard to alleged abuses at the asylums, constitutes a portion of the mental pabulum of certain classes of the people, and can no more be suppressed by additional efforts for the prevention of any real cause in which they might originate, than the delusions of an insane person can be removed by assuring him that they are erroneous and absurd.
4. The report of the Maine Insane Hospital embraces a period of twenty months, from the 31st of March, 1851, to the 30th of November, 1852. Men. Women. Total. Patients at the commencement of the period . 34 24 58 Admitted since 64 35 99 Whole number 9S 59 157 Discharged 47 25 72 Remaining at the close of the period 51 34 85 Of those discharged, there were cured 22 34 34 Died 8 1 9 ” 1 died with pneumonia, 3 with general paralysis, 1 with scrofula, 1 with malignant sore throat, 1 with epilepsy, 1 with inflammation of the liver, and 1 with consumption.”
Since the institution was opened it has received 115 suicidal patients, 61 males and 54 females. Only 2 of these, and those both males, have com- mitted suicide while in the hospital, though several have done so after being removed therefrom. Of homicidal patients there have been 69, 53 males and 16 females. “No accident from any of these has ever occurred.” “The suicidal form of insanity is as likely to recover as any other form, but the homicidal much more rarely recovers.” ” There have been 20 who had botli suicidal and homicidal propensities, 11 males and 9 females.” Of patients inheriting a predisposition to insanity, ” 337 have enjoyed the benefits of the hospital and been discharged. 148 of them went home cured; a proportion nearly equal to that which obtains among those who do not inherit the disease.”
Dr Harlow thus writes of the practical operation of that ” Maine Law” whicli provides that all persons charged with crime, and alleged to be insane, shall be removed to the Insane Hospital for the purpose of testing the validity of the allegation: “We Lave had 5 such cases within the last twenty months, sent here by order of the court. They were all males. Three of them were charged with the crime of arson, 1 with larceny, and 1 with assault with intent to kill. Three proved to he insane beyond a doubt. The other two were brothers, one aged seventeen, the other ten, and both charged with the crime of arson.
” In the case of the elder boy, so much doubt existed in relation to the pre- sence of insanity, that he was removed from the hospital soon after we reported him to the court. The younger boy is of diminutive size, physically slender, strongly marked with the nervous temperament, quite active and irritable, and has rather a wild, peculiar expression of the eye, and the impediment of stam- mering. He is unlike any other boy we have ever seen, an enigma of no easy solution. He possesses a good memory, an uncommon observation, great in- quisitiveness, acute perception, strong affection, emotion, and feeling, little or no judgment, and a will which brooks restraint with great difficulty. He is naturally far from being malicious, but possesses kind and tender feelings towards all, except when under the influence of passion. He is forward, fear- , less, and bold. He is a creature of impulse; and here, we consider, lies the secret of the whole matter. Impulse, it we may so speak, usurped all power, and impelled him, in the absence of judgment and all conscience, without motive or thought, to commit the crime with which he is charged. We could not con- sider him in any other light than as an irresponsible boy, as not accountable for the acts which he committed, on the ground of an undeveloped judgment and a icant of conscience.”
5. Dr McFarland having resigned the superintendence of the New Hamp- shire Asylum, his place has been filled by the appointment of Dr John E. Tyler, the author of the report now before us. Men. Women. Total. Patients on the 31st of May, 1852 G3 55 11S Admitted in course of the year … 68 01 132 Whole number 131 119 250 Discharged 01 46 107 Remaining, May 31, 1853 … . 70 73 143 Of those discharged, there were cured ‘ . .41 22 63 Died 5 3 8 Causes of death.?Chronic mania 3, consumption 2, exhaustion 2, suicide 1. Prom the opening of the asylum, in 1S48,’;105S patients have been received, 434 discharged recovered, and 92 have died. The report is brief, and does not touch upon any important subject wliicli has not heretofore been fully discussed in these “notices.” 6. The report of Dr Rockwell, of the Vermont Asylum, is limited to three pages.
Men. “Women. Total. Patients on the 1st of August, 1851 . . 173 155 328 Admitted in course of the year … 63 74 137 Whole number ..???? 236 229 465 Discharged . . ? ? ? ? .6/ 63 130 Remaining, August 1, 1851 . ? ? ? 169 166 335 Of those discharged, there were cured . . 73 Died ….???* ^5 Admitted since the opening of the asylum ? 1746 Discharged cured …??? SIS A severe form of dysentery prevailed, chiefly in the months of August and September (1850). 93 patients were attacked by this disease, of whom 282 AMERICAN ASYLUMS FOE THE INSANE. 1G died. Nearly all our attendants and assistants were attacked by the same disease, all of whom recovered.
In treating of the caution necessary to be observed in regard to the removal of persons to the asylum, Dr Rockwell makes the subjoined remarks, which coincide with the opinions which wc long since formed and expressed in regard to the class of cases in question. ” There is one class of cases, especially, which are frerpientlv sent too early to a lunatic asylum, I mean that of puerperal cases. We have repeatedly had women brought to the asylum in less than two weeks from their accouchement. Some of them have recovered very soon, but would, probably, have recovered as well had tlicy remained at home. Others have died, apparently from exhaustion, who might have recovered had it not been for the exposure and fatigue of the journey.”
7. The Boston Lunatic Hospital was opened in 1839, and the report of 1S49, by Dr Stedman, contains the principal data in regard to the movement of its population, during the first decennium of its existence. Men. “Women. Total. Whole number of patients …. 313 298 Gil Discharged … . . - . 232 175 407 Cured 180 Died 129 Remaining ……. 201 Single 329, married 211, widowed 61, unknown 10.
Causes of death.?Consumption 26, marasmus 13, general paralysis 11, epi- lepsy 10, dysentery 10, Asiatic cholera 10, general debility 9, diseases of heart 8, hemiplegia 5, exhaustion 4, chronic diarrhoea 4, suicide 3, chronic inflamma- tion of brain 2, erysipelas 2, variola, inflammation of stomach and intestines, inflammation of intestines, fungus hscmatodcs, typhoid fever, scrofula, cholera morbus, pleuro-pneumonia, tubercular peritonitis, cancer, purpura, and wound of an artery, 1 each.
” During the last year, and that preceding, dysentery prevailed epidemically, and very severely. Erysipelas has been of frequent occurrence among us. The Asiatic cholera was not so terrific in its ravages here as we had antici- Eatcd. On its first irruption, provision was made for such patients as might e attacked by it, by converting our bowling-alley building into a cholera hospital. Great care was also taken in properly ventilating the halls and rooms of the main hospital, in regulating the diet, and in watching and arresting the very first movements towards this affection. Numerous inmates were seized with diarrhoea during this cpidemic, and had it not been for the timely and successful attempts made to check this apparently premonitory symptom, cholera would not have left this household so tree from its ravages as it did. The number of those prostrated with true cholera was 16. Of these, 10 died ; all of whom had been insane for too long a period to allow of any expectation of recovery from their mental disease.”
In the course of the year one of the patients stabbed another in the leg, with a knife which he procured in the dining-room. The hemorrhage was arrested by tying the femoral artery, and, twelve days afterwards, secondary hemorrhage by tying the external iliac. Death, however, ensued, twenty-five days subsequent to the primary wound. The investigation by the grand-jury established the fact that the attendant upon the patient who committed the outrage had neglected to follow the printed rules of the house, obedience to which would have prevented the accident.
In a case of prolonged abstinence from food, Dr Stedman administered cliloroform, and, while the patient was under its influence, ” nourishing liquids were readily swallowed.” ” I have since,” he remarks, ” resorted to the same treatment m other eases, with a like bcneficial result. My belief now is, that in anaisthetic agents we have a perfect preventive of” self-destruction from starvation, in those cases, at least, where there is no organic lesion of the stomach.”
From the report for 1S50. Men. Women. Total. Number of patients, November 30, 184-9 . 80 123 203 Admitted in course of the year … 27 16 73 Whole number …… 107 169 276 Discharged ……. 26 46 72 Remaining, November 30, 1850 … 81 123 204 Of those discharged, there were cured . .12 25 37 Died 8 17 25 Died of consumption 4, general debility 3, paralysis 2, exhaustion 2, dropsy 1, erysipelas 1, marasmus 1, dysentery 11.
” Dysentery has been the most prevalent and fatal disease with which we have had to contend. It commenced about the 1st of August, and con- tinued till about the 1st of November. During this period 47 cases occurred of a severe and very intractable character. Of this number, 10 died. It proved most fatal among the aged and the melancholic, and took off but one ease in which there was any certainty of recovery from mental disease. It was remarked that only the most emaciated, or such as were suffering from other and long standing disease, succumbed to dysentery; the fat and more robust who were attacked survived. One patient, an Indian, in good bodily health, afflicted with chronic mania, and who had been insane three years, was seized with the severest form of dysentery which has ever come under my observation. While in the height of the malady, his mental operations began to undergo a change, after which his mental and bodily convalescence went on together, and resulted in the perfect restoration of the entire man. Another, a man who had been insane over twenty years, and quite a difficult one to manage, owing to his strong mischievous propensities, was attacked with the same affection, and remained dangerously ill for some weeks. He recovered from dysentery, and now no patient in the house is more quiet and controllable. Indeed, to many he would appear mentally sound.”
In June, 1851, Dr Stedman resigned his office, and Dr Clement A. Walker was electcd as his successor. The report for that year is from the pen of the latter. Men. Women. Total. Patients, November 20, 1850 … SI 123 204 Admitted in the course of the year . . 46 46 92 Whole number …… 127 169 296 Discharged 27 28 55 Remaining, November 30, ISol … 100 141 241 Of those discharged, there were cured 13 14 27 Died . 10 13 22 Causes of death. ? Consumption 3, exhaustion 3, general debility 2, dysentery 2, epilepsy 2, marasmus 2, apoplexy, typhoid fever, typhus fever, pneumonia, inflammation of bladder, general paralysis, and cliionic diarrhoea, 1 each. ” But one cpidcmic has appeared among us the past year, and although dysentery was prevalent, numbering nearly iilty cases, yet it was ot mild type, and was fatal in but one or two instances.”_ The following case of “an intelligent Irish lad is worthy of a place upon permanent record:?
” The little fellow, but thirteen years of age, arrived at Boston, on board an emigrant vessel, in July last (1851), having no friends here, with the exception of a brother, who had preceded him but a few months. He landed on Thursday, and on Saturday became a raving maniac. Confused by the strangeness, and, to his eyes, the magnificence of the city, which, for weeks, had been the cul- minating point of his anticipations, lie wandered about, gazing upon the novelties by day, and dreaming of them by night, until he believed himself the inhabitant of a fairy land, and could not recognise the brother whose bed he shared; ‘for,5 said he, ‘he was dressed so nice, and we usedn’t to be so at home.’ Ileason soon lied, and for weeks he by turns babbled like a child and raved like a madman. At length convalescence was established, and has since rapidly progressed. A few weeks more and he will doubtless go out from us whole.” Of the 92 patients admitted in the course of the year, G1 were foreigners, 50 of them from Ireland.
Persons acquainted with the subject will perceive, by the statistics herein quoted, how, as time has progressed, the great predominance in the number of males over that of females in our public institutions for the insane has disap- peared. Indeed, from these data, it would appear that there are more insane females than males. Excluding the Maine Hospital, where, since the confla- gration, the apartments for men greatly exceed those for women, the number of patients remaining in the above-mentioned asylums, at the time of last report (except the McLean, of which the latest report does not distinguish the numbers of the sexes) was, of males 5S2, females G?5, and the number of admissions, in course of the preceding year, males 307, females 399.? (.American Journal of Jttedical Science, for January, 1854.)
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