Code of rules and regulations for the government of those employed in the care of the patients of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane : at Philadelphia / by Thomas S. Kirkbride.

  • Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Code of rules and regulations for the government of those employed in the care of the patients of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane : at Philadelphia / by Thomas S. Kirkbride. 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.

    13/86 (page 7)
    of them. Every increase of its resources enables it to extend its sphere of usefulness in the community. Except in its very early flays, it has never asked or received an}' aid from city, county, or State, and no one connected with it has any pecuniary in- terest in its success. Every one, therefore, who engages in any post connected with an institution of this character, should feel bound in honor to fulfil a part of this great trust, and by a faithful performance of duty to aid as far as possible in carrying out the main objects of its benevolent founders, to make it truly a blessing to every afflicted one that enters its doors, a spot where only kindness and genuine sympathy reign, and where all that is possible, is done to mitigate the sufferings of our fellow-beings. The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane was opened for the reception of patients on the first day of 1841, since which 7663 have been received, and 3519 have left, restored to perfect health ; while a large number have returned home, with various de- grees of improvement. The institution has been steadily acquiring a firm hold on the confidence of the friends of the afflicted, and of the community, and every one con- nected with it is expected so to act in all things, as to prove that this confidence is not misplaced, but that even a higher degree of it will yet be deserved. The treatment of the insane was formerly but little understood, and it is to be feared that many abuses and cruelties of a revolting nature were practised upon patients by their ignorant and un- feeling attendants, to the lasting injury of the sick,