The popular feeling towards hospitals for the insane / by I. Ray.

  • Ray, Isaac, 1807-1881.
Date:
[1852?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The popular feeling towards hospitals for the insane / by I. Ray. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    3/32
    Within a few years past, no class of* charities has ob- tained so strong a hold on the public sympathies as hos- pitals for the insane. Most of the States have endowed and fostered them with unusual liberality ; private bene- ficence, living and posthumous, has showered upon them its favors, and the time has come when no community among us is supposed to have discharged its obligations to this unfortunate class of our fellow-men, that has not provided an establishment expressly for their care and protection. In the older States they are crowded to their utmost capacity of accommodation, and for a con- siderable period, every year has witnessed the erection of a new, or the enlargement of an old one. It is a cu- rious fact, however, that, in connection with this general current of public opinion, there is a strong under-current of a very different character. None but those who have our opportunity of knowing, can have any adequate idea of the amount of bad feeling, gross misconception, scan- dalous gossip, and even fierce hostility, that quietly per-*- vades the community, with the effect of circumscribing more or less their sphere of usefulness. The most of us, fortunately, are so much concerned with the increasing pressure upon our means of accommodation, and intent, perhaps, on schemes of enlargement, as to make too little account of this state of feeling and of its legitimate conse- quences. I believe, however, it will be worth our while to give this subject a thorough consideraton — more thorough than I find it within my power to give it at this time. My observations must be very brief and general,