PROVISION FOR THE INSANE. 



BY WILLIAM M. EDWARDS. 



[William M. Edwards, medical superintendent of the Michigan asylum for the insane, 

 is one of the most prominent alienists of Michigan, and by his research and the pub- 

 lished results of his investigations has gained a fame throughout the nation among 

 thos(^ who arc interested in the care of the insane. He has made a special study of 

 the history of the development of the modern asylum for the care of this class of 

 defectives.] 



In the earlier history of hospitals for the care of the insane 

 in any state, conditions in many respects were materially differ- 

 ent from what they became after a lapse of thirty, fifty or more 

 years. In making provision for insane people it seems to have 

 taken a long time for legislators and citizens generally to grasp 

 the magnitude of the problem with which they had to deal. 

 In Michigan the first attempt was the establishment of an asy- 

 lum for the care of deaf and dumb, blind and insane, and well 

 informed men seriously thought that one principal building 

 would afford room for these classes for many years. Happily 

 this triple alliance was dissolved before any insane persons were 

 received, and a separate hospital for the care of that class estab- 

 lished and completed ready for the reception of its first patient 

 in 1859. When a second state hospital was proposed in 1876, 

 violent opposition was encountered and even the chief execu- 

 tive of the state doubted the expediency and wisdom of es- 

 tablishing such an institution, giving as his chief reason that 

 he did not believe there ever would be a sufficient number of 

 persons in Michigan to make a second hospital at all necessary. 

 In less than twenty five years from that time there were five 

 state asylums. The newer states have perhaps profited by the 

 mistakes made in the older ones, so that they have not repeated 

 earlier blunders. In all newer asylums, particularly in the 

 earlier histories of individual states, the character of the mal- 

 ady treated seems to have been different from that prevailing at 

 present. A greater number of acute conditions were received, 

 patients recovered from a first attack and insanity was com- 

 monly believed to be one of the most curable diseases until 

 Dr. Pliny Earl, of Northampton, Mass., first showed the fallacy 



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