Fifteenth annual report of the managers of the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane for the year 1885 : transmitted to the legislature January 15, 1886.

  • Buffalo State Hospital.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fifteenth annual report of the managers of the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane for the year 1885 : transmitted to the legislature January 15, 1886. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    lect and indifference, which, it is universally conceded, has added years to the life of the insane. ' As strengthening the position we would refer to the fact that un¬ der the improved modes of living due to the diffusion of the knowl¬ edge of hygiene in its broadest sense and the advance of medical sience, the life of the generation of mankind has been lengthened from the proverbial thirty-three years to nearly forty. ihe multiplication of asylums finds its explanation in part in the philanthropic spirit of the age. The same spirit of sympathy for the helpless and unfortunate which through private charity erects hospitals for the deformed and for the sick, homes for the aged, orphan asylums and foundling hospitals, retreats for the fallen and the inebriate, also erects, by aid of the public purse, asylums for the insane, the idiotic, the deaf and dumb, and the blind. These latter classes from their greater helplessness, the State has adopted as its wards. It erects institutions for their care and invites all who need to occupy them and receive their benefit. They are erected in a broad humanitarian spirit by the people, for the people. It is this spirit which furnishes the strongest refutation of the foundation principle of the theory of evolution: “ The survival of the fittest. 5 It is for the cure and preservation of the weak and helpless and not for the strong and helpful only. There has been within a few years a marked change in public feeling in regard to sending patients to an asylum for treatment. It is within the memory of many of us when it was considered a dis¬ grace that a member of one’s family was insane. Every effort was made to conceal the fact, and the unfortunates were hidden away in outbuildings, in attics and in cellars, where they were restrained by chains and shackles, and left not only without the comforts, but too often without the necessities of existence. Life was usually of short duration under such unfavorable condi¬ tions. It wras not cherished or prolonged and death was a welcome visitor.. The census enumerator never reached them, and their death did not swell the vital statistics. At the present time, from a knowledge of the kind care and judicious treatment afforded by asylums, patients are more willingly sent, and it is made the duty of the proper authorities to transfer the insane to an institution when their friends neglect to take the step. That they are filled to their capacity is due to several causes, and first, they are not erected till there is an imperative demand for them, and often not until there is such an accumulation of the insane as to fill the various wards as soon as they are ready for occupancy. This rapid reception of jjatients attracts attention and gives origin to the belief that there is an alarming increase in the disease. Experience has shown that asylums are used by the people ac¬ cording to their nearness and ease of access by well-defined lines of travel. A new asylum erected in the midst of a populous district, which before was compelled to send its insane to some remote point,