Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 125, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1904 — WATER CURES THE INSANE. [ARTICLE]

WATER CURES THE INSANE.

Novel and Successful Treatment of Lunatic* in New York Asylum. Some 2,500 insane women arc under treatment at the Manhattan State Hospital on Ward’s Island, in East river. Here the physicians in eharge have of late been putting into practice the most novel and revolutionary treatment ever attempted iu an institution for the treatment of lunatics. It is a form of water cure. A fighting, apparently irrepressible patient Is taken Into the bathroom by two attendants and placed in what looks to be an ordinary porcelain bathtub, on which rests a raftlike frame. The patient is placed on this grid by a simple process the plastic strips or the frame are lowered until the r-aft becomes a cradle, in which the patient rests. At lirst there is much kicking and splashing, but the attendants keep a firm hold on the-patient and the doctor at the marble table keeps his hand ott the lever and his eye on the thermometer before him. The water in the tub is controlled by this lever and is maintained ordinarily at a,'temperature of about it) degrees. Soon the soothing effect.of the warn! wqfer on the ends of the agitated nerves begins to tell and the.patient grows less violent and finally lies perfectly calm and content Soon the patient sleeps. The length of time during which the patient is left in the tub depends on the character of the disease and the physical condition. Sometimes the subject remains only a few hours, sometimes for days and even weeks. The longest time during which a patient is kept continuously in the tub is between three and-four weeks. Day and night the patient swings contentedly In the cradle in the bathtub, takes her meals there and sleeps there. Soon the patient has been transformed into a tractable, peaceful being, on the road to rapid recovery.. Of course there are many conditions in which the full hot bath cannot he used advantageously. For these there are specialized baths, which are equally effective In their way. The sitz bath for cataleptics and other forms of mental disturbance is constantly In use, and the hot air cabinet, which is one of the important adjuncts of the hydrotherapeutic system, is substituted for drugs in relieving pain. It has been found quite as efficient, and there are no depressing after results. Other accessories of the department are the rain bath, needle bath, warm and cold packs, and the Scotch douche. The last is one of the most forceful tonics that can be employed. It is regulated from the marble table, as are the various baths. The patient stands at a distance of about twelve feet, and the doctor, keeping one hand on the lever which controls the cold water and the other on that which controls the water heated to a fixed teihperature, turns on a stream of one and then tlie other. The thermometer In front of him enables him to gauge tlie temperature accurately, and there is an indicator by means of which the force is measured.