Memorial soliciting enlarged and improved accommodations for the insane of the state of Tennessee : by the establishment of a new hospital / by Miss D. L. Dix ; printed by order of the General Assembly, November, 1847.

  • Dorothea Dix
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memorial soliciting enlarged and improved accommodations for the insane of the state of Tennessee : by the establishment of a new hospital / by Miss D. L. Dix ; printed by order of the General Assembly, November, 1847. 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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    to sixty and seventy, there are bat three attendants or nurs- es. Incredible as this seems, I am am assured it is the (act—indeed, a reference to the Report previously quoted, (see page 4,) exhibits at once the, fact and the assigned cause in juxtaposition. The means at the disposal of the Institu- tion writes the superintendent, enable it to employ only two male attendants and one female This admits an effec- tual and immediate remedy. Reference to the Treasurer's Report of the present year opens the following exhibit for the last two financial years: (see page 16.) Attendants #2066 73; and directly following, Servants hire $1546 58. Perhaps the first charge embraces the salary of the Physi- cian, matron, and steward. There is no table of officers, and it is not shown in either of the documents referred to. that there ever has been any organized body of this sort, as is usual in other Hospitals. I am sure that the Legislature do not purpose that the patients should suffer for lack of necessary care, nor that the Physician should be charged with a responsibility so great as that of guarding the pa- tients from harm, and treating them remedially, without ad- equate means. That present legislation is not requisite for authorizing remedy for many actual wants, is apparent in the Statutes for 1839-40: (see page 208, chap, cxx., sec. 4.) Be it enacted, That said Board of Trustees shall have power to make such orders and regulations as may be ne- cessary for the government of their patients in the Hospital, its internal police, the supply of provisions, fuel, wdter, cloth- ing, books, and whatever else may be deemed necessary for the health, comfort, cleanliness, and security of the inmates. This act is certainly benevolent in its aim, and sufficient- ly full and explicit upon the subject treated. In most of our State Hospitals, the average of nurses and attendants is one nurse to every ten patients. Sometimes the number of patients in charge of one nurse is larger, sometimes fewer, according to the state of the patients and other circumstances. (See numerous Hospital Reports.)—■ Paying patients may, according to the choice of friends, have special nurses wholly devoted to their service. The
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