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.

  • Dix, Dorothea Lynde, 1802-1887.
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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    beings; and even supposing them to be of value as places of temporary confinement, they are nevertheless utterly useless for any remedial purpose. On a late visit at the Hospital, 1 found these cells occupied, and the most vehement excite- ment prevailing, unquestionably stimulated and protracted by the unfortunate circumstances surrounding the patients. The lodging-rooms above are of sufficient size, indeed might without disadvantage be made smaller, but they are either not warmed at all, or insufficiently heated, and not ventila- ted. In fact, the proper ventilation of the whole building appears to have been entirely overlooked in its construction, and it is not possible to preserve a pure and wholesome at- mosphere throughout. , A new warming apparatus, lately introduced at, a large cost, is apparently a complete failure: and by its defective construction, allowing the escape of deleterious gases, the patients are in worse condition than before the introduc- tion of the furnaces. In no way, at present apparent, can the temperature either of the day-rooms or the lodging apart- ments be properly regulated for the feeble or more vigor- ous patients. There are in the Hospital no bath rooms; and thus a most important remedial agent is not to be had, except under circumstances of great exposure, and unreasonable extra labor. Convenience is not consulted, nor personal cleanli- ness attainable in any special department. There are no clothes room, no store rooms, no labor saving arrange- ments of any description whatever—no convenient dining- rooms, with labor saving dumb-waiters, &c, &c. The kitchens and laundry are so amazingly defective that the surprise is to witness the accomplishment of daily work in any manner so as to secure the order of domestic econo- my. There is no bakery, no meat house, no smoke-house, no ice-house, no corn-crib nor meal-bin, no spring-house, milk-house, nor sheds for storing coal, wood, &c, &c. There are no cisterns, and no wells which afford a supply of water—there is never, I am told, at any season a sufficient supply for culinary and other domestic purposes, much less for the preservation of personal cleanliness. The superin-