Library Collections: Document: Full Text


First Annual Report Of The Trustees Of State Lunatic Hospital

From: Reports And Other Documents Relating To The State Lunatic Hospital At Worcester, Mass.
Creator:  Horace Mann, Bezaleel Taft, Jr., W.B. Calhoun, Alfred Dwight Foster, and F.C. Gray (authors)
Date: December 1833
Publisher: Dutton and Wentworth, Boston
Source: Available at selected libraries

Previous Page   Next Page   All Pages 


Page 3:

15  

The financial condition of the institution will particularly appear from the Treasurer's report. The general statements it contains are as follows:

16  

The whole amount of the expenditures, up to November 30th, inclusive, is (This sum includes the cost of a large quantity of fuel, bread stuffs, vegetables, &c. for the present season.) $12,196.25
The amount actually received for board of patients, &c. up to the same time, $2202.76
Amount of outstanding charges upon the Treasurer's books, 7451.28
9654.04

17  

The Trustees deem it their duty fully to communicate certain other facts, intimately connected with the welfare of the institution, and with the benefits which our own citizens have a right to expect from its establishment. The whole number of patients admitted to the Hospital, as before stated, is one hundred and sixty-four. Of this number, according to the best information the Trustees have been able to obtain, thirty-three were foreigners, that is, persons having no legal settlement in this Commonwealth. There is every reason to believe, that this very large proportion of foreigners is owing to a belief prevalent in some parts of the State, that, if a foreigner or State pauper were sent to the Hospital by order of court, the town or city before chargeable with his maintenance, would be no longer liable, but that the expense of supporting all such persons would become a charge upon the funds of the institution, to be ultimately defrayed from the treasury of the Commonwealth. In four instances, certainly, where the former keeper of the insane foreigners or State paupers had been deputed to remove them to the Hospital, he has been asked whether those were the worst cases under his care, and has answered unhesitatingly, (perhaps unreflectingly,) that they were not. Thus our own citizens, whose insanity is more aggravated, and who consequently suffer more, are postponed to foreigners who suffer less, because the authorities of some of our municipal corporations believe that by removing the foreign pauper to the Hospital, they shall be exonerated from the burden of his support. In one instance, by virtue of the law authorizing the commitment of those insane persons "whose going at large would be manifestly dangerous to the good people of the Commonwealth, because they are so furiously mad," an idiot has been committed, (of course upon the oaths of one or more persons, as to the facts of "furious madness" and "danger,") who could neither stand nor walk, who was unable to extend the lower limbs from the closest possible contraction towards the body, and who had but little muscular strength even in the arms. It is manifest that the Legislature, in conferring the power of commitment to insure the safety of our citizens, never contemplated its exercise in a case of this kind. Neither the most upright intentions nor the greatest care, on the part of the courts invested with the power of commitment, can furnish an adequate security against these abuses. They must decide according to the evidence adduced. If the municipal authorities choose, for any reason, to remove State paupers or idiots to the Hospital, and can prove the allegations of "furious madness" and "danger," the courts must decide accordingly. There are at the Hospital at this time twelve idiots, or persons bordering upon idiocy. The great misfortune of this is, that these idiots or imbeciles, of whose recovery there can never be the least gleam of hope, occupy places at the institution which would otherwise be filled by the curably insane. It is most respectfully suggested whether legislative provision should not be made, continuing, under all circumstances, the liability of the town or city to support any pauper after his removal to the Hospital, in the same manner as before; and also authorizing the Trustees to remove to the town or city whence they came, at the expense of said town or city respectively, all idiots or persons whom they may adjudge not dangerous to be at large, and not susceptible of mental improvement by the remedial treatment of the institution, provided such town or city, on being duly notified, shall not take upon themselves the removal of such idiot, or such person adjudged not to be dangerous and not susceptible of mental improvement as aforesaid. Should such provision be made, it would become necessary for the courts, in every case of commitment, to certify the town or city whence the person committed came, that the Trustees might know to whom application should be made for his return, in case the contingency above mentioned should happen. Such enactment would probably remedy the evil of sending foreign paupers and idiots to the Hospital, to the exclusion of our own citizens, and of those who are susceptible of cure. If some provision having this object in view be not adopted, it is obvious that the Hospital will soon become the mere receptacle of foreign paupers, idiots, imbeciles and incurables.

18  

The Hospital is now in a very crowded condition. Originally designed to accommodate one hundred and twenty persons only, its inmates at one time, during the present month, actually exceeded that number ; and more than thirty strenuous applications for admission have been necessarily rejected. The Trustees fully concur in the suggestions made by the Superintendent, that additional accommodations are required partly for the very worst and partly for the best class of patients. Such incurables, as to a certain extent the Hospital must always be burdened with, might receive comfortable attendance and care in apartments entirely separated from the principal building, where their presence sometimes casts a cloud over those who are gradually emerging into the light of reason. A separate edifice for convalescents seems also to be imperiously demanded, where those whose minds are so fully restored as to render further companionship with the insane injurious, but whose recovery is not so fully established as to exclude the hazards of a relapse, might for a few weeks occupy a position upon the confines of society, mid-way, as it were, between the necessary restraints and discipline of a Hospital, and the manifest danger of mingling again suddenly in the sharp encounters of life. Such an addition to the present institution would render a transition from the partial restraints of its confinement to the freedom of the world, gradual, easy and safe; and would afford the mind time and opportunity to fortify and strengthen itself against the recurrence of those cruel mischances to which, even in its day of strength, it had fallen a victim.

Previous Page   Next Page

Pages:  1  2  3  4    All Pages