On provision for the insane poor of the State of New York : and the adaptation of the "asylum and cottage plan" to their wants ; as illustrated by the history of the colony of Fitz James, at Clermont, France / by Charles A. Lee.

  • Lee, Charles A. (Charles Alfred), 1801-1872.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On provision for the insane poor of the State of New York : and the adaptation of the "asylum and cottage plan" to their wants ; as illustrated by the history of the colony of Fitz James, at Clermont, France / by Charles A. Lee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    advantage to themselves and at comparatively small outlay, has been fully demonstrated in asylums in England and on the continent. Plan of J. S. Butler, M. D., Superintendent of the Hartford Eetreat. At the meeting of superintendents of insane asylums in June, 1865, the question of better provisions for the chronic insane, and increased facilities for the cure of recent cases, came up for discussion, when Dr. Butler stated (Report of Mass. Board of State Charities, 1865, p. 221) that he had long and earnestly considered the subject, and had lately been called upon by his board of trustees to furnish the Legislature of Connecticut with somo facts relating to the incurable insane of that State, and their present condition. In investigating this matter he had found reason to believe that the whole number of insane in Connecticut is about 600, and of this number only about 200 are in the Retreat for the Insane at Hartford; that a considerable part of this 200 are incurable, and nearly all of the remain- ing 400 are so; and that he had good grounds for thinking the condition of t!iese incurable patients, outside of his hospital, often very far from what it should be. They are kept in almshouses, in jails and in private families; are sometimes neglected, sometimes chained, aud otherwise ill treated. Such of this class as are in the Hartford Eetreat are comfortably lodged and treated; but they take up the room which might otherwise be occupied by curable patients, and thus, and in other ways, interfere with the proper office of a curative hospital. He recommended, therefore, that a farm should be purchased, and plain buildings of a suitable nature be erected on it, which should be occupied by the incurable insane, whose labor should be employed to carry on the farm. He thought that such labor would be remunerative, and that the expense of supporting these incurables could be much reduced in this way, and their treatment made much better than at present, while the curative treatment of recent cases of insanity could be carried on better in hospitals if this class of incurables should be removed. He had recommended such a plan to the Legislature of Connecticut, who, he thought, were disposed to look favorably upon it. Dr. Hills, of Western Virginia, Drs. Choate and Walker, of Massachu- setts, Dr. Peck, of Ohio, Dr. Douglass, of Quebec, and several others, all superintendents of lunatic hospitals, concurred in the views expressed by Dr. Butler. Plan of Dr. Hills, Superintendent of the Western Asylum of Virginia ; formerly Principal of the Central Ohio Asylum at Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Hills, for many years the able superintendent of the Central Ohio Lunatic Asylum, now in charge of the Insane Hospital of Western Virginia who has personally examined the best institutions of the kind in Europe some of them in company with the present writer—in his report for 1864 re- commends what he calls a Farm House, or Hamlet Home for the Chronic Insane, with the following,details : 1. A farm of 500 acres near a railroad, with good building stone, water and fuel.