Many Arrived Sick and Weak

In the 1890s, many patients arrived at the Hospital a sad state of health. To boost patient stamina, the medical superintendent advocated “tonics, with ample nourishment in the form of good food: eggs and milk, cod liver oil, liquid extract of malt…and beef, iron and wine.”

"Probable Causes of Insanity"

Here is a list of what the Hospital documented as "probable causes of insanity" between 1890 and 1910:

How Educated Were Our First Patients?

According to this 1892 patient profile, many of our first patients had limited schooling:
More highly educated: 19 percent
Can read and write: 50 percent
Can read only: 18 percent
Cannot read or write: 13 percent

An Aversion to Restraints

A progressive man for his time, Medical Superintendent Thomas Burgess, MD, reported in 1892, “I am pleased to be able to report that still another year has passed without our being obliged to resort to restraint in any form. While not so bigoted as to deny the possibility of…cases in which restraint must be resorted to, I have yet to see one so violent and troublesome as not to be manageable by kind and [fair] treatment.”

Stigma Hampers Treatment

The Hospital’s first medical superintendent met families who had hid their loved ones’ illness for months, even years, out of fear and shame. He called for the public to be better educated about mental illness, and seek treatment sooner, “Relatives are very loath to admit the existence of insanity in their family, though why brain disease should be regarded as a disgrace any more than consumption (tuberculosis) or other bodily disorder, I am at a loss to see. Such, however, is the fact, and until the general public is educated out of this belief, friends will continue to lie about it most unblushingly.”

Concern Over Foreign Patients

Between 1890 and 1895, patients from the following countries were admitted to our Hospital: