Tag Archives: St. Elizabeths

Comparing Insanity Rates

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Black Patients Received Less Funding for Mental Health Care, Montevue Asylum in Maryland, circa 1909

Black Patients Received Less Funding for Mental Health Care, Montevue Asylum in Maryland, circa 1909

Alienists knew that the rates of insanity for various races differed, and came up with several explanations for it. One particularly condescending theory about the lower rates of insanity found in Native Americans and blacks was that these races didn’t face the responsibilities and pressures that so-called “civilized” races did. Especially for blacks, so long as they remained slaves and had most decisions made for them, the theory went, they were relatively untroubled by insanity. With freedom and its burdens, however, came overwhelmed minds that led to mental breakdown.

In 1914 Dr. Mary O’Malley at St. Elizabeths’ (Government Hospital for the Insane) compared rates of white and black insanity. What she found initially fit right in with the “civilization” theory: In 1860 during slavery, “one in every 5263 colored persons were insane . . . and in 1910 there was one in every 723 colored persons insane.” O’Malley noted that between 1860 and 1910, insanity in the “colored population” had increased 1,670 per cent.

However, when she studied black and white female* patients–an important distinction–at St. Elizabeths, her results were much less skewed. During the previous four years, 345 black and 455 white women had been admitted. Rates of specific mental conditions proved interesting:

Dr. Mary O'Malley in Center Photograph, photo courtesy of Flickr, taken from History of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia, 1817-1909

Dr. Mary O’Malley in Center Photograph, photo courtesy of Flickr, taken from History of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia, 1817-1909

Dementia praecox: (black) 37%;  (white) 37%

Organic brain disease: (black) 16%;  (white)13%

Undifferentiated psychoses (black) 6%;  (white) 4%

Manic-depressive: (black) 9%;  (white) (11%)

Diversional Occupation at Central Lunatic Asylum in Virginia, the Country's First Institution for Colored Persons of Unsound Mind

Diversional Occupation at Central Lunatic Asylum in Virginia, the Country’s First Institution for Colored Persons of Unsound Mind

Rates for other diagnoses were similarly close. One distinction that O’Malley did find was that black patients had much lower rates of melancholia and suicidal tendencies. This was especially surprising considering the rates of poverty and lack of status for blacks during this time period.

*Because these women were not veterans as most of St. Elizabeths’ male patients would be–and thus coming from widely differing backgrounds and from many birthplaces–they represented a fairly even-matched pool of impoverished women in the Washington, DC area.

 

Superintendents in Danger

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Howard Hall, Government Hospital for the Insane

Howard Hall, Government Hospital for the Insane

Though attendants usually had the upper hand when it came to violent interactions with patients in asylums, patients could also be violent and harbor great animosity toward those in charge of their treatment. The May 22, 1911 issue of the Washington Post detailed what could have been a blood bath at St. Elizabeths (Government Hospital for the Insane) in Washington, DC if not for the loyalty or conscience of an asylum patient.

“The plot was hatched in Howard Hall, the building in which are imprisoned all of the criminally insane patients of the hospital,” the paper explained. A man named Charles Fletcher and “nine other desperate criminals” planned to kill the attendants in the Hall and escape. Another patient, Arthur D. Barnes, overheard the plot, and saw the conspirators hide files, iron bars, and chair legs in preparation for the break.

Dr. William A. White, Superintendent at St. Elizabeths, courtesy National Library of Medicine

Dr. William A. White, Superintendent at St. Elizabeths, courtesy National Library of Medicine

“When he was sure he knew everything about the plot, he told Dr. White [superintendent at St. Elizabeths]. His story was found to be true,” the paper went on. Fletcher was taken to “the United States jail for safekeeping” while the others were confined in separate cells.

President William Howard Taft

President William Howard Taft

Someone on Barnes’ behalf presented a petition for pardon to President Taft, who was to rule on it the day after the story broke. Barnes had originally been sent to the penitentiary at Atlanta, Georgia for life, for killing a man “in a fit of jealous rage. Later, he showed traces of insanity, and was transferred to the government hospital,” the Washington Post explained.

St. Elizabeths and the Civil War

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General Joseph Hooker Received Care at St. Elizabeths, courtesy NARA RG 418-P-717

General Joseph Hooker Received Care at St. Elizabeths, courtesy NARA RG 418-P-717

Before the Civil War began, Dr. Nichols (see last two posts) and his oversight committee decided to open up the unfinished east wing of the asylum to the army’s use for sick soldiers. The space was officially called St. Elizabeth Army General Hospital, but soldiers called it St. Elizabeths when they wrote home. Nichols also opened a building called the West Lodge to the navy.

Nichols was hard pressed to run the asylum and help the military side of the operation as well. For the most part, only the military’s sick came to the hospital, though a few hundred (out of about 1,900) patients were treated for war wounds. In April 1863, however, military hospitals began to send their patients with amputated legs to St. Elizabeths because it had opened up a prosthetic limb shop. Soldiers with leg amputations received surgical treatment there, were fitted for legs, and remained until healed. The patient also learned how to clean and oil his new leg and care for it under the supervision of R. W. Jewett, who had patented the artificial limb shop.

Civil War Cemetery, circa 1897

St. Elizabeths’ Civil War Cemetery, circa 1897

Many inconveniences resulted from the asylum’s accommodation of the military, including prime agricultural land being taken from service for ordnance training. Nichols also found it hard to collect from paying patients whose families lived in the South. (Out of compassion, he did not discharge these patients.) Foraging soldiers stole food from the hospital’s garden, and numerous other trespasses–like stealing coal–frustrated Nichols repeatedly.

The Army Maintained Many Hospitals During the Civil War. This is Ward K of Armory Square Hospital, Washington, DC, 1862, Located Aproximately Where the National Air and Space Museum Stands Today, courtesy Library of Congress

The Army Maintained Many Hospitals During the Civil War. This is Ward K of Armory Square Hospital, Washington, DC, 1862, Located Approximately Where the National Air and Space Museum Stands Today, courtesy Library of Congress

As the war went on, 85 percent of the total number of admissions to the asylum came from the army. The rate of navy admissions was much lower because in Nichols’ words: “. . . the seaman has a more hardy and unsusceptible [sic] constitution than the landsman.”

 

Early Care at St. Elizabeths

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A Four-Horse Carriage Used to Take Male Patients to Town at St. Elizabeths

A Four-Horse Carriage Used at St. Elizabeths to Take Male Patients to Town

The Government Hospital for the Insane–better known as St. Elizabeths–accepted the insane of the District of Columbia but had a special patient population of veterans from the nation’s army and navy. Like most institutions of its kind, the asylum was beautifully landscaped and had pleasing views for the patients.

St. Elizabeths’ first superintendent, Dr. Charles Nichols, did not run to extreme treatments. If a patient were not overtly disturbed, he prescribed tonics and a nourishing diet, warm baths, and treatments for “regularity of all the alimentary functions.” Provided patients could be induced to eat (the first step on the alimentary journey), alimentary treatment consisted primarily of ensuring the bowel excreted waste properly. Physicians sometimes induced vomiting to “clean out” the system, but it was far more likely that they would administer purgatives (very strong laxatives) to make sure the bowel was completely evacuated.

Dr. Charles Nichols

Dr. Charles Nichols

As in most asylums, patients were offered work to occupy their time and distract their minds from their troubles. Patients were allowed visitors, could walk on the grounds, and enjoyed (especially early on) individual treatment plans. Theories of the time supposed that most insanity was caused by environment and habits, so every effort was made to provide “things rational, agreeable, and foreign to the subject of delusion.”

Nurses on the Lawn Across From Building E, St. Elizabeths, courtesy NARA

Nurses on the Lawn Across From Building E, St. Elizabeths, courtesy NARA

Whether a patient’s environment had become contaminated by overwork, marital problems, or the many pressures of life, doctors hoped that taking people away from the environment which had created their mental distress would allow them to recover. For at least the initial period of asylum growth, this belief was an overwhelmingly valid reason for insisting patients be committed to an institution rather than receive treatment at home.

A Special Veterans Hospital

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An Early View of the Government Hospital for the Insane

An Early View of the Government Hospital for the Insane

Though Armistice Day (November 11) was renamed Veterans Day only in 1954, veterans with mental health issues did have a special facility to meet their needs quite early on. Though crusader Dorothea Dix had pushed unsuccessfully for federal funding to help pay for America’s (civilian) mentally ill, she and other supporters did manage to get approval for a hospital for the insane of the army, navy, and District of Columbia. On January 15, 1855, the Government Hospital for the Insane received its first patient, Thomas Sessford.

Dr. Charles Nichols was the facility’s first superintendent, and he helped design one of the campus’s earliest buildings, the Center Building. One interesting feature was that the wards used different species of wood for their interiors: the Beech Ward installed woodwork from beeches, and the Cherry and Poplar Wards installed their interior woodwork from like-named trees. The patients had lovely views of the Anacostia River and farmland, and the grounds had extensive trees, shrubs, and flowers to give it a rural feeling of peace.

St. Elizabeths, 1917, courtesy Library of Congress

St. Elizabeths, 1917, courtesy Library of Congress

Allison Building's Sleeping Porches, 1910, courtesy National Archives and Records Administration

Allison Building’s Sleeping Porches, 1910, courtesy National Archives and Records Administration

The Government Hospital for the Insane became known during the Civil War as St. Elizabeths. Sick soldiers quartered in the hospital were embarrassed to write home from an insane asylum and simply substituted the historic name of the land patent on which the hospital stood. The name was made official in 1916.

My next two posts will discuss early care at St. Elizabeths, and its Civil War operation.

 

 

 

And All The Rest

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Female Patients Farming in the early 1900s

Female Patients Farming in the early 1900s

Care in private insane asylums could be quite nice (see last post), but quality care in public institutions usually went downhill once they became popular enough for the public’s demand to lead to overcrowding. Many superintendents held costs at bay by growing their own crops, making patients’ clothing, rearing livestock, and so on, with free patient labor. This labor was at first genuinely believed to be therapeutic, but as work shifted from “light” and enjoyable to strenuous and ongoing, these activities lost much of their therapeutic value. Some patients did note, however, that they appreciated work because it helped pass the time and made them tired enough to sleep.

Overcrowding at Philadelphia State Hospital, courtesy 1946 Department of Welfare Report

Overcrowding at Philadelphia State Hospital, courtesy 1946 Department of Welfare Report

Staff interaction is typically where overcrowding made the biggest impact, particularly with attendants. Staff became overwhelmed with their workloads and simply couldn’t provide the level of care that many patients needed. A paragraph in the March 28, 1900 issue of The Washington Post gives just a glimpse of this issue:

St. Elizabeths' Center Building, circa 1900, courtesy National Archives

St. Elizabeths’ Center Building, circa 1900, courtesy National Archives

“The conditions existing in the disturbed ward of the women’s department are especially deplorable . . . it is necessary to keep the most troublesome under constraint, but, owing to the fact that the accommodations in the sleeping rooms are now entirely inadequate and it is impossible to confine those who are most troublesome, it is necessary to use the straight [sic] jacket or the sleeved vest, binding the arms of the patient while he or she is mixed up with the others in the corridors of the wards. Their cries and piteous struggles make the other disturbed patients more and more uneasy, until all rest is impossible and the chances for cure there made more remote.”