Monthly Archives: August 2013

1914 Destroy Bad Food Of State Asylums

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DESTROY BAD FOOD OF STATE ASYLUMS
Shocking Conditions Found by Federal Inspectors in a Sweeping Inquiry.
FIRE PERIL IN FLATBUSH
Condition “Bordering on Savagery” at Binghamton
Milk from Tubercular Cows at Poughkeepsie.
Special to The New York Times.

ALBANY, May 8. – For eighteen months, according to information received to-day by Commissioner John H. Delaney of the Department of Efficiency and Economy, the insane patients of the Hudson River State Hospital at Poughkeepsie were supplied with milk from tubercular cows belonging to the institution and purchased with the State’s money. Mr. Delaney learned that in that period twenty-three gravely afflicted milch cows of the hospital’s own herd were condemned.

An investigation at once will be made by Commissioner Delaney to ascertain whether the animals were suffering from tuberculosis when they were purchased or whether the disease developed among them after they became the property of the institution.

The State Hospital Commission, which is responsible for the management of the State Hospitals for the Insane, has as yet made no official answer to the accusations contained in the reports of Inspectors of the Department of Efficiency and Economy. It was learned to-day, however, that when an inspection of the food supply at the various institutions was made some weeks ago by experts from the Bureau of Animal Industry of the United States Department of Agriculture, the Hospital Commission started to make some inquiries about conditions at the fourteen institutions under its supervision.

According to information obtained to-day complaints were received from several institutions regarding the quality of the beef after the commission contracted for a three months’ supply of Argentine beef. Inspector Phillips then urged the commission to have an inquiry made by two Federal Inspectors, and his advice was followed.

The reports of these inspectors have been in the hands of the State Hospital Commission since early in April, but have not been made pubic. The inspectors reported deplorable conditions at nearly every institution they visited.

At the Utica State Hospital the Federal inspectors were compelled to order the destruction of a large quantity of lard used in the making of bread because it was rancid. The bakery at the institution, they said, was “unclean beyond belief.” The floor and walls they found “in a vile state.” Conditions, they said, were “a grave menace to employes and inmates of the institution.”

They found 500 pounds of pork and seven carcasses of mutton which were unfit for food. After discovering that forty dozen of eggs out of a total supply of seventy-five dozen were decayed, they were informed by the kitchen employes that it had been the practice to feed the patients with such eggs.

At the Buffalo State Hospital the Inspectors ordered the destruction of meat unfit for human consumption; at Central Islip they condemned eggs and 200 pounds of beef; at Willard a barrel of fat, intended, it was asserted, for cooking purposes, was condemned.

Similar conditions were reported at the Binghamton State Hospital. A condition described as “bordering on savagery” was found by the Federal Inspectors in the storeroom of the Mohansic State Hospital at Yorktown Heights. At the Rochester State Hospital the inspectors ordered the entire supply of eggs on hand, 320 dozen, destroyed as unfit for food. A supply of bacon and beef in the storeroom, the inspectors said, should not be used for food. Employees at the Middletown State Hospital told the inspectors most of the eggs used for the patients at the institution were decayed.

Commissioner Delaney said to-day that reports from investigators of this department who have been inquiring into conditions at the Long Island State Hospital in Flatbush show “dreadful” conditions at that institution. The investigation of the Efficiency and Economy Department thus far has been confined to the mechanical equipment of the hospital, but Federal Inspectors have made inquiries regarding the food.

The Federal Inspectors report that many of the eggs at this institution are classified in the trade as “rots” and “spots” and “weak and cloudy” eggs. Employes said that the grade of eggs furnished to the institution was extremely poor. The Federal Inspectors found 200 pounds of moldy bacon and two tubs of rancid lard.

An engineer employed by the Department of Efficiency and Economy found the floors and ceilings of the institution in a bad and dangerous condition. The menace to the inmates in case of fire, the engineer said, was very grave, owing to a defective fire alarm system and improperly marked stairways and exits. The sanitary conditions of the institution the expert called “a mockery” of conditions that should obtain.

SOURCE: The New York Times, Published: May 9, 1914, Copyright @ The New York Times

1879 Dutchess County Alms-House – Poughkeepsie, NY

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A DISGRACE TO DUTCHESS COUNTY. MISERABLE CONDITION OF THE ALMS-HOUSE-THE SUPERVISORS AND SUPERINTENDENT AT LOGGERHEADS.

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y., Dec. 14. – The Board of Supervisors visited the Dutchess County Alms-house on Friday, and found a good many things which common humanity and decency require should be at once remedied. every room and hall in the buildings was examined. A committee appointed by a previous Board of Supervisors spent $700 out of an appropriation of $1,000 in making certain improvements. but they only began a work which ought to be speedily finished. They put new floors in the hallways and 110 pairs of blinds on the windows. Friday’s inspection showed that the floors in every room are worn out, and have been for years. Strips of tin and zinc have been nailed over the cracks here and there to keep the cold out, and in some of the rooms and hallways portions of the walls have fallen. The window-panes are cracked and broken everywhere. The rooms are supplied with dilapidated wooden bedsteads of the commonest sort, which are so unclean that they are fit only to be thrown into a bonfire. Six of these beds are in one room. There are 25 new iron bedsteads stored in the building, with new mattresses, which have never been used. The kitchen is in the basement of the main building, and is so poorly ventilated that the odors from the cooking penetrate everywhere, and often make the atmosphere noisome. The garret of the main building is a miserable death-trap. Across the centre runs a partition, and 17 beds are under the low-peaked roof in the east end. A narrow, ill-contrived stairway furnishes the only exit from this man-hole. Let a fire once break out on the floors below, and the 25 or 30 paupers who usually huddle about the steam-pipes would stand very little chance of getting out alive. In the day-time this miserable room is lighted by one window in the east end. At night the light is furnished by a single candle fastened to the centre of an iron rod, which crosses the room over the heads of the occupants. The partition should be ripped out, three dormer windows should be built on each side, and substantial fire-escapes should be put up at the east and west ends. It is criminal recklessness to house the paupers in the garret as it is now.

Near the main building stands what is called the “insane building.” It needs a thorough overhauling. The “rooms” it contains are little better than wooden cells. Sliding doors separate these cells from a narrow corridor, and in each door is a small aperture through which food was formerly passed to the insane inmates. In some of these cells are two and three beds, and all the wood-work is impregnated with foul odors. New floors were put in the cells last season, but the whole affair needs to be rebuilt, and good rooms put where the cells now are. The chapel building is mainly occupied by the keeper and his family. It ought to be converted into a hospital and infirmary. The chapel could be left as it is, and at least 12 good rooms built for the use of the sick paupers. Another greatly needed improvement is a new boiler for the engine. The one now in use was put in 19 years ago, and it was only a second-hand boiler then. In its present condition it is liable to explode at any moment.

To this disgraceful condition of affairs is to be added the present commingling of the sexes. There is nothing to separate them in either the buildings or yards. They ought to be separated, and to do so need not be a difficult task. Proper fencing is all that is required in the yards. The keeper’s quarters should be removed from the chapel building to rooms in the centre of the main building. The male inmates could then be assigned to apartments in one end of the building, and the females placed in the other end. Proper partitions and doors could be easily built to divide the building in this way. The total expense in making all the necessary improvements is estimated at the very small sum of $1.500.

One thing that has helped to bring about the present disgusting state of affairs at the Alms-house is the lack of harmony between Superintendent Ladue and the Board of Supervisors. The committees of 1878 and of this year complain of the Superintendent for his refusal to carry out their suggestions, and say that had he done so many of the present evils would not exist. The committee of 1878 built an additional stairway at the west end of the building, but lath has been nailed across the exit and the stairway closed. The new iron bedsteads purchased this year have not been put in use by the Superintendent, nor have the new mattresses. Some of the latter still remain in the store where they were purchased. Other shortcomings of the same sort are charged against him by the Supervisors, and it is hoped that when the new Superintendent takes office he will make a beneficial change.

There are now 130 inmates in the Alms-house, but cold weather will probably increase the number to 150. At this time last year there were 180 inmates. Only one insane person is among the inmates, 10 incurable cases having been sent to the Willard Asylum during the past season.

SOURCE: The New York Times, Published: December 15, 1879, Copyright @ The New York Times.

1864 The Willard Asylum and Provisions For The Insane – County Poor House Investigation

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“THE WILLARD ASYLUM, AND PROVISION FOR THE INSANE. 

By an Act of the New York Legislature, passed on the 30th day of April, 1864, the Secretary of the State Medical Society was authorized to investigate the condition of the insane poor in the various poor-houses, alms-houses, insane asylums, and other institutions, where the insane poor are kept, not including, however, such institutions as are now required by law to report to the Legislature of the State.

The law directed the Secretary to arrange a series of questions, such as in his judgment would be likely to elicit the greatest amount of information on this subject, procure them printed, and transmit them to each county judge in the State. It directed the county judge, on the reception thereof, to appoint a competent physician, a resident of the county, to visit the county poor-house, or institution where the insane poor are kept, and to examine into the condition and treatment of the insane inmates, and to transmit the result of the investigation to the Secretary, who was thereupon directed to condense the information so received and report the same to the Legislature.

Dr. Willard, the Secretary of the Medical Society, entered at once upon the service assigned him, and the following January his report was presented to the Legislature. This document bears ample testimony to the earnestness, fidelity, and zeal with which the author executed the duties of his commission; and although he died, prematurely and lamented, before the passage of the law creating a new institution for the insane, a grateful commonwealth has perpetuated his memory and name in the Willard Asylum for the Insane.

The leading features of the law, passed by the last Legislature, authorizing the establishment of a State Asylum for the chronic insane, and for the better care of the insane poor, are as follows:

It provides for the appointment, by the Governor, of three Commissioners to select, contract for, and purchase a suitable site for the building, -said site to be first sought for in any property owned by the State, or upon which it has a lien; the construction, by the Commissioners, of suitable asylum buildings, or the modification of buildings already erected and not occupied for other State purposes; the appointment by the Governor of seven trustees, who shall have power to appoint a medical superintendent, one assistant physician, a steward and a matron, and adopt the necessary by-laws for the government of the asylum, and fix the rate per week, not exceeding two dollars, for the board of patients, and, with the approbation of the Governor, designate the counties from which the chronic pauper insane shall be sent to the said asylum.

The chronic pauper insane from the poor-houses of the counties thus designated, shall be sent to the said asylum by the county superintendents of the poor, and all chronic insane pauper patients who may be discharged, not recovered, from the State Lunatic Asylum at Utica, and who continue a public charge, shall be sent to the asylum for the insane hereby created.

The county judges and superintendents of the poor in every county of the State, except those counties having asylums for the insane, to which they are now authorized to send such insane patients by special legislative enactments, are hereby required to send all indigent or pauper insane coming under their jurisdiction, who shall have been insane less than one year, to the State Lunatic Asylum at Utica.

Seventy-five thousand dollars are hereby appropriated for the purpose of carrying into execution the provisions of this act. The asylum hereby created shall be known as the Willard Asylum for the Insane.”

SOURCE: American Journal Of Insanity, October 1865, Pages 1-5.
New York State County Poor Houses.