Memorial of D.L. Dix : praying a grant of land for the relief and support of the indigent curable and incurable insane in the United States.

  • Dix, Dorothea Lynde, 1802-1887.
Date:
[1848]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memorial of D.L. Dix : praying a grant of land for the relief and support of the indigent curable and incurable insane in the United States. 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.)

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    muhities to insanity is to be found in the occurring cases in corresponding given periods. There are twenty State hospitals, besides several incorporated hospitals, for the treatment of the insane, in nineteen States of the Union, Virginia alone having two government institutions of State and incorporated hospi- tals. The following is a correct list, omitting several small establishments conducted by private individuals, and several pretty extensive poorhouse and prison departments, which cannot properly-be classed with regularly organized hospitals, being usually deficient in remedial appliances. The first hospital for the insane in the United States was established in Philadelphia, as a department of the Penn Hospital, in the year 1752. This has been transferred to a fine district near the village of Mantua, in the vicinity of Philadelphia, since 1832: number of patients 188. The second institution receiving insane patients, and the first exclusive- ly for their use, was at Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1773: number of pa- tients 164. The third was the Friends' Hospital, at Frankfort, near Philadelphia, in 1817: number of patients 95. The next was the McLean Hospital, at Charlestown, (now Summer- ville,) in Massachusetts, in 1818. This valuable insiitution is second J;o none in America. Number of patients ISO. Bloomingdale Hospital, near the city of New York, was established in 1821; number of patients 145: South Carolina Hospital, at Columbia,, in 1822; number of patients 74: Connecticut Hospital at Hartford, patients 122, and Kentucky Hospital at Lexington, patients 247, in 1824. In lS45-'46, the legislature of Kentucky passed a bill to establish a second State institution in the Green River country. Virginia Western Hospital was opened at Staunton in 1828; number of patients 217. Massachusetts State Hospital, at Worcester, was opened in 1833, and enlarged in 1843; it has 370 patients. Maryland Hospital, at Baltimore, was founded in 1834; it has the present year 109 patients. Vermont State Hospital, at Brattlebo rough, was opened for patients in 1837, and enlarged in 1846-'47; it has at present 320 patients. New York City Hospital for the poor, on Blackwell's island, was occupied in 1838; it is now being considerably enlarged: above 400 patients. The grand jury this month (June, 1848,) have made the following pre- sentment in relation to the Blackwell's island hospital for the insane poor: We found no less than 425 afflicted children of humanity suffering un- der the most terrible of all privations, and, we observed with regret, less ade- quately cared for than their situation and the dictates of humanity re- quire.' The same document places before the public the concurrent testimony of Drs. Macdonald, Williams, and Ogden, who in a clear and true report show that the accommodations for the insane poor of New York city are at present inadequate and miserable; and the imperfect manner of their treat- ment is such as to be a disgrace to the city, which otherwise is deservedly famed for its liberal benevolent institutions. In the present state of affairs it is useless to attempt the recovery of any patients here. The same remark holds good of the department for the insane connected with the commercial hospital in Cincinnati. Well organized hospitals are the only fit places of residence for the in- sane of all classes; ill-conducted institutions are worse than none at all.