The medical management of insane women / by Horatio Robinson Storer.

  • Storer, Horatio Robinson, 1830-1922.
Date:
1864
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The medical management of insane women / by Horatio Robinson Storer. 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 the point alluded to I have already called the attention of the profession at the late meeting of the American Medical Association at New York; my remarks being embodied in a paper upon The Relations of Female Patients to Hospitals for the Insane. This communication, having received the commendation of the Section of Practical Medicine and Obstetrics, was by it presented to the Asso- ciation in Committee of the Whole, with the result of unanimous approval, the resolutions passed by the Association being as fol- lows :— Resolved, That in the opinion of the American Medical Associa- tion, it is expedient that there should be attached to every public hospital for the Insane, one or more consulting physicians, who may be consulted at the discretion of the Superintendent; such measure being for the interest of the hospital, its medical officers, and its patients. Resolved, That a copy of the above resolution be transmitted to the Board of Trustees of each of our public hospitals for the Insane, and also to the Secretary of the Association of American Superintend- ents, with the request {hat jt may be endorsed by that body, and the act proposed be urged upon the respective boards with which its members are officially connected. It is the object of the present paper summarily to explain the ad- vantages and necessity of the proposed measure, as comprising part of a systematic and more rational treatment of insane women; pre- mising that with the single exception of Dr. Ray's most excellent institution at Providence, there is no asylum in this country provided with an advisory board. The so-called medical1 visitors attached to the Hartford Retreat are not appointed with reference to special professional consultation, while at the McLean Asylum, as is also the case at Bloomingdale, the consulting physicians and surgeons at- tached to the general hospital, have nothing whatever to do, officially, with the insane department. If any of these gentlemen have ever been called upon for advice, it has merely been as an act of courtesy and not as a right. They have not been selected with reference to any pre-eminence in this specialty, and they would probably none of them lay the slightest claim to be considered expert regarding insanity. The advantages, as regards female patients, of an Advisory Board of Consulting Physicians at Insane Asylums would, I conceive, be several; applying— Cp*\ I. To the patient, tl r n - II. To the Hospital, nC^j in. To the Superintendent, S&' IV. To the Profession, and V. To the Community. I.—The benefit of an advisory board to patients will, in the case of females, be found to be extreme. My assumptions as to the na- ture and truly reflex character of the larger proportion of their psy- cho-pathological manifestations being granted, as must be done by IV in