South Canterbury Times, SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2436, 8 January 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1881.

A case of a somewhat painful nature occurred at the Magistrate’s Court tbe other day. A young man who had been suffering from lung disease was under treatment at the hospital, when his symptoms underwent a change, insanity became developed, and he was handed over to the authorities. This unfortunate young man was found by the police in the condition of a maniac, fearfully emaciated and evidently suffering not only mentally but physically. In accordance with the criminal statutes of the colony he was charged with that serious offence called 11 lunacy ” and having sojourned for a brief space in the lockup, he was duly brought before the Bench. The Resident Magistrate happened to be absent, and the Justices found themselves suddenly placed in a distressing dilemma. The “ accused ” was found guilty of the offence with which he was charged, and committed to the Asylum, but on account of his weak condition it was impossible for him to be sent out on his journey at once. Then arose a controversy as to his resting place—should it be the gaol or the hospital ? The Bench disliked the idea of sending a man who had committed no aggravated offence to the home provided for felons, but they were assured by the resident surgeon of the hospital that there was no accommodation for such cases in that institution, and that the man could not possibly be admitted. The gaoler was equally adverse to the reception of a lunatic in the establishment over which he presides. There was no option for it, however, and the Bench, after discussing the matter, had to insist upon the detention of the prisoner in one of the cells of the gaol till such time as it would he safe and convenient to remove him to Sunnyside. That such a difficulty as the one we have depicted should arise in a neighborhood blessed with so many public institutions as Timaru, is far from creditable. At present there is apparently no proper place of temporary refuge for the mentally deranged. Although insanity is often developed during the course of disease, the hospital has no proper accommodation for insane patients. There are plenty of barbarous appliances, such as straight waistcoats and handcuffs and strong sacks, but there are no rooms, no padded cells, where the sick and violent can be placed. When head symptoms arc betrayed, the patients must either be tied up like drapers’ parcels, or turned into the public thoroughfare to be subsequently picked

np by the police. This is a sad state of affairs, and it offers a bad outlook for suffering humanity. It betrays a singular want in connection with the Timaru Hospital, and it reveals an extraordinary oversight on the part of the Commissioners. Lately they have been making extensive additions—building wards on which they have conferred their names, and which are ; therefore designed to perpetuate their memory. How is it that they have forgotten to provide a suitable place for violent patients ? They have furnished the institution with male wards and female wards, accident wards and sick wards, and the dead house has not been forgotten, but strange to say there are neither strong rooms nor podded cells. We are not aware of any other institution of the kind, in the colony in which accomodation for the sick insane is not provided. The Dnnedin Hospital has its strong rooms and so have the hospitals at Christchurch and Ashburton, yet here we are with a costly edifice, and no proper provision for the treatment of the most ordinary fever cases. The removal by train to such a distant place as Sunnyside, of persons suffering from temporary insanity developed by diseases of a prostrating nature, is obviously as dangerous to the public as it is cruel and risky to the patients. It is bad enough to have contagion lurking in railway carriages in spite of reasonable precautions, but to have sick persons whose illness has affected their brain oscillating between a local hospital and a remote Lunatic Asylum is simply tempting Providence and inflicting a grievous wrong on the travelling public.

The Hospital Commissioners should lose no time in completing their operations. They have spent a few thousands in building additions to the hospital lately, but they have left out one of the most important essentials to such an institution. It will be hard for them to find ways and means for the purpose, for their funds are exhausted, and to pay for their monumental wards they have lately had to go round with the hat to some of the local bodies. But they have not exhausted the means that are available for raising the wind, and if the public only knew that it was in contemplation to erect a padded room to the memory of the Commissioners as a body, and that their names would be engraved on the ceiling, we have no doubt they would cheerfully contribute. Under any circumstances it is undesirable in the extreme, that with an hospital in our midst, on which a large sum of money has been lavished, there should be any necessity for turning sick patients, who develop insanity, out of doors, sending them to a common gaol, or risking the health of the community by sending them a hundred miles away in railway carriages. Such an extraordinary method of dealing with aggravated cases of physical and mental infirmity reflects strongly on our humanity, and with a view to the prevention of the recurrence of such a case as the one to which we have alluded, the Hospital Commissioners should lose no time in giving the institution a slight finishing touch, by building a memorial ward such as we have suggested.