752 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



orate manner than at present exists a scientific and wider knowl- 

 edge of the disease. Such a hospital should be administered on 

 the most liberal principles, not as you see at the present time in a 

 competing spirit as to the smallest cost, but having a due regard 

 to frugality in its truest and most economical aspect — the cure of 

 the insane." 



Mr. William P. Letchworth, formerly President of the New 

 York State Board of Charities, in a scholarly and careful resume 

 in his admirable work, The Insane in Foreign Countries, advo- 

 cates thorough remedial measures in small hospitals, no matter 

 how expensive, for the acute insane, as not only more humane, but 

 in the end more economical. 



Dr. Chapin, Superintendent of the Pennsylvania Hospital for 

 the Insane, in his presidential address before the superintendents 

 of institutions for the insane, said : " Every hospital should have a 

 special organization for the medical treatment of its recent cur- 

 able cases. Is it the better way to continue our recent cases in 

 the wards of large hospitals in constant contact with hundreds of 

 chronics ? To this serious and important interrogatory I must 

 enter an emphatic negative answer, and believe it is not too soon 

 to sound a note of warning. The needs of the recent and acute 

 cases may be best met by the erection in connection with our 

 State asylums of small and well-appointed hospital wards for the 

 strictly medical treatment of such cases." 



The late Dr. Bancroft, Superintendent of the New Hampshire 

 State Asylum, thus wrote on this subject : " I have little doubt 

 that moderate-sized hospitals constituted and operated either in- 

 dependently or as annexes would return increased ratios of recov- 

 ery while adding vastly to the comfort and happiness of patients 

 during hospital residence. Such adjustment would diminish rou- 

 tine, secure the largest degree of personal freedom and indulgence, 

 and guarantee to each individual the best remedial influences as 

 well as protection from such as are both distasteful and detri- 

 mental." 



Dr. Godding, in an address before the National Conference of 

 Charities and Corrections, thus spoke on this question : " The pro- 

 vision, then, should include one building, or preferably one group 

 of buildings, designed especially for the acute and curable cases. 

 No detail in construction should be omitted, no liberality of ar- 

 rangement curtailed, that may be held to in any way assist in 

 the treatment and cure of these cases." 



The last fifty years have witnessed a work of which we have 

 reason to be proud : the evolution of the care and treatment of the 

 insane out of the mist and darkness of superstition and ignorance, 

 when the insane were chained, beaten, and burned, to the present 

 kindly care which seeks to treat them as very sick people. The 



