Seventeenth annual report of the managers of the Buffalo State Asylum for Insane for the year 1887.
- Buffalo State Hospital
- Date:
- 1888
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Seventeenth annual report of the managers of the Buffalo State Asylum for Insane for the year 1887. Source: Wellcome Collection.
41/64 (page 41)
![assertions, as a few quotations will show. “ In one asylum,” he says, ^‘two patients are bathed in one water; C. is confined to bed, which is not made up to-day and is wet, and patients are not bathed for three weeks for want of water.” In another, “ Three and six are bathed in one Avater,” and “ restraint is left to the discretion of attendants.” Of another he says, “ The day Avas hot, and the yard, having neither shade trees nor grass, was not a pleasant place for resort.” Of another that a woman Avith a child had charge of a Avard, and in one Avard he records five filthy patients found, and eight soiled beds made up.” Similar defects in the county care are reported by the State Charities Aid Association. Enough has been said to shoAv the deficiencies of county care, when compared Avith that furnished by the State. What is the reason of this condition of affairs ? It is not that the county officials are inhuman or indifferent, but that they are constantly under pressure to keep the pauper insane at the lowest possible price. The great objects of care, to promote recoA’^ery or improvement and to hold in check those influences which tend to lower the mental condition of the insane,” readily yield to the attempt to see hoAv cheaply they can be kept, which is too often the controlling motive in the care of the dependent and helpless chronic insane. The State asylums for the care of the I chronic class, Avith the large number accumulated, Avith their large farms and thorough organization, have reached the low price of $2.25 per Aveek. What can be expected in the small asylums when the I amount expended for board and clothing is within rather than beyond $1.25 per week per patient, or from fifteen to eighteen cents per day ? The natural tendency of such ideas of economy is to retain in county I custody all of the insane that can be kept at home and to withdraw i from the State asylums every case, at the earliest possible moment, j and the question may fairly be raised whether all of the acute insane, : and such as present a reasonable prospect of improvement, are sent to I State hospitals as contemplated and required by law. Whether they j are sent or not depends upon a belief in the curability of the case; E and the important question of Avhether a patient is likely to be bene¬ fited by medical care and treatment, avowedly a difficult one for [ an exjAert, is left to a county official to decide off-hand. It is not f strange, then, that the county asylums should receive the benefit of any ’ doubt that may arise, and that they contain patients who have never ; had the advantage of treatment in any State institution. This whole subject needs the most careful consideration upon the ! part of those upon whom the law places the responsibility, that justice [Senate, No. 10.] 6](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30318270_0041.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
