75 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The medical superintendent could determine on the admission 

 of patients which were incurable and which gave hope of cure. 

 The State should then appropriate such moderate sum per person 

 for all incurable patients, whether of recent admission or of long- 

 standing disease, as to enable these sufferers to receive kindly 

 care and a few of the pleasures of life. For the curable cases in 

 the hospital annexes no reasonable expense should be spared. 

 This is true economy regarded either from the philanthropic, 

 economic, or scientific point of view. The curable patients come 

 entirely from the strong people who have earned their own liveli- 

 hood, and have done their part in the world until, loaded down by 

 ill-health, trouble, or care, they break down and go to a State hos- 

 pital for treatment. The mental weaklings, the victims of the de- 

 generacy of their ancestors, the last step before the extinction in 

 them of the species these, who have always been a burden on the 

 community, are all to be found in the incurable class. 



It has been estimated that the average duration of life of a 

 chronic insane person is twelve years. This represents in money 

 expended for care and in lost productiveness about five thousand 

 dollars. The economic importance, therefore, of saving every 

 patient possible from lapsing into chronic insanity becomes ap- 

 parent. It is reasonable also to suppose that with such hospital 

 care the duration of sickness in curable cases would be lessened, 

 and that many would more quickly resume their former occupa- 

 tions. 



The moral effect, too, upon the general public would be marvel- 

 ous, and the strictly medical aspect of insanity would be appre- 

 ciated by the lay mind. It is an accepted scientific fact that in- 

 sanity, in curable cases, is curable directly in proportion to its 

 early medical treatment away from home associations. The public, 

 when the character of the hospital annex for recent cases and the 

 importance of early treatment were understood, would not regard 

 a State hospital as a place of living death, only to be resorted to 

 when all other means fail, and often after all hope of recovery or 

 possibility of accomplishing any curative measure is past. 



The cost per patient in the hospital annex would not be more 

 than is now expended in any good general hospital, and would not 

 exceed nine or ten dollars per week for such patient. Such a 

 method would not be any more expensive than the present system, 

 and when the permanent effects are considered would give the best 

 results and would also be a positive saving. The average weekly 

 cost under the present conditions per patient is three dollars and a 

 half, or $3,500 for a State hospital of one thousand patients. 

 Under the separate plan of treatment, the curable patients, num- 

 bering not more that eighty, could be maintained at a weekly 

 cost of ten dollars per patient, or $800; the nine hundred and 



