PROVISION FOR THE INSANE 109 



of borderland conditions, oarlior manifosialions and li^litxT 

 forms of mental disease that may he admitted to psyehopathic 

 or other hospitals for treatment without the ordinary inquir- 

 endo de lunatico. Referring later to the subject of psycho- 

 pathic or sjx'cial hospitals, we now may well ask what may 

 constitute an ideal state hospital for the care of the insane? 



In framing an answer to the question there are a number 

 of points that we shall all hold in common. Undoubtedly 

 there will be others upon which each will have his own idea or 

 theory and these ma}^ be somewhat at variance. I think we 

 may fairly assume that we all agree upon the necessity for 

 some sort of special provision for the separation of the acute 

 from the chronic cases in every asylum that has five hundred or 

 more patients. Of the various hospitals for the care of insane 

 that I have visited, some standout more prominently as being 

 worthy of imitation than others. Among those that have 

 especially appealed to me were the institutions at Woodilee 

 and Gartloch, a few miles outside the city of Glasgow, Scotland, 

 and serving the parish of Glasgow, with its approximately 

 million inhabitants. The older one, at Woodilee, having some- 

 thing more than nine hundred patients, comprises a central or 

 administration building with wings on either side and some 

 detached buildings. These latter are especially worthy of 

 note. One is a reception house which has been in use now a 

 little more than two years. It is entirely separated from all 

 other asylum buildings and into it since it was opened every 

 newly admitted case, without exception, has been received. It 

 consists of two roomy wards and six bedrooms and can ac- 

 commodate twenty patients, ten of each sex. The two wings 

 are divided by the kitchen, nurses' quarters and the serving 

 department. The arrangement is devoid of any asylum fea- 

 tures, being identical in all respects with those of a small hos- 

 pital. The patients' quarters are one story only; there are no 

 means of secluding patients ; all the windows open on verandas 

 or to the ground and can easily be used as a means of egress. 

 The doors are not locked. The entire nursing force is women, 

 under the charge of a specially trained nurse. Every patient 

 on admission is treated in this house and the length of residence 

 depends on the mental condition. It was feared by Dr. Hamil- 



