Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. II, Part 24

Author:
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association
Number of Pages: 1166

USA > Georgia > Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. II > Part 24

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WHAT THE ASYLUM COST.

The following is a statement of land owned by asylum, showing the year, number of acres, of whom purchased, and price paid: 1837, 573 acres, J. Thomas and R. K. Hines, $4,000; 1849, 400, Tomlinson Fort, $3,000; 1853, 637, John S. Thomas, $300; 1856, 40, Willis Vaughn, $750; 1862, 212, Jno. Hammond, $300; 1866, 150 3-10, M. L. Fort, $1,878.75; 1872, 1,700, John Furman, $10,404.70; 1882, 25, (Est.) E. T. Sibley, $2,000; 1887, 62, L. T. Calloway, $1,925. Total amount of land owned by asylum, 3,093 3-10 acres. Total cost of land, $27,258. Statement of appropriations for lunatic asylum-1837, purchase site and begin work, $20,000; 1839, prosecuting

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work, $5,000; 1840, prosecuting work, $9,000; 1841, completing east wing, $10,000; 1845, completing west wing, $10,000; 1847, lightning rods and force pump, $800; 1849, additional improvements, $10,500; 1851, same, $24,800; 1853, same, $56,500; 1855, prosecuting work, $110,000; 1857, same, $63,500; 1858, same, $30,000; 1860, supply of water, $2,500; 1860, balance due contractors, $566; 1866, building for colored insane, $10,000; 1868, repairing roof, $1,000; 1869, general repairs and water, $10,500; 1870, additional buildings, etc., $68,000; 1871, balance due con- tractors, $37,855; 1871, repairing roof and painting, $5,000; 1871, completing wall, $12,000; 1873, additional improvements, $23,896; 1876, water works, $20,000; 1877, enlarging and additional improvements, $23,500; 1879, enlarging colored building, $25,000; 1881, enlarging institution, $165,431 ; 1883, enlarging institution, $92,875.53; 1886, repairing roof, center building, $3,000; 1889, artesian well and improvements, $13,300; 1892, laundry, fire-walls, cottage and amusement hall, $14,500; 1893, enlarging institution, $100,000. The total expenditures for land and buildings (including $100,000 for buildings now in process of erection) is $1,006,281.98.

In 1877, by act of the legislature, the asylum was made free to all bona fide citizens of Georgia. For the last two years the legislature appropriated the sum of $200,000 per annum for support and maintenance of the lunatic asylum. This seems to be a truly magnificent sum, but when the magnitude of this institution is known, and the purposes for which the money is necessarily expended, it is truly surprising that it can be maintained at so small a cost. The average number of lunatics in the asylum during the year was 1,709. An examination shows that this apparently magnificent sum for support and maintenance of the lunatic asylum, $200,000 per annum, amounts to only $118.33 per capita per annum, or 32 42-100 cents per capita per diem. This amount supplies all the wants of the inmates, which are: Five physicians, medicines, nurses, guards, night watchman, food, clothing, fuel, gas, water works, fire department, washing, burying the dead, paying fares of discharged patients to their homes, repairs to buildings, replacing furniture, crockery, bedding, and clothing damaged by ordinary use and destructiveness of the patients. This latter item of destruction of crockery, bedding and clothing by the insane is a large item of expense each year. When it is remembered that the average paid by the counties of Georgia for the one item of feeding each negro prisoner in the common jails amounts to 40 cents a day, the economy of the lunatic asylum maintenance is strikingly illustrated. The maintenance of the institution at the small cost above given results from the most rigid economy and scrupulous honesty of the officials.

THE CARE OF THE INMATES.

The one great feature of the management of the insane in our asylum is the constant, unwearied attention and kindness to each patient by the officers and attaches of the institution. Within the past twenty years a great revolution has taken place in insane asylum management. Many years ago Superintendent Powell abolished all coercive measures from the institution. While in some states, even in this day, violent patients are restrained by brute force, strapped to walls, chairs, etc., or made helpless by the straight jacket and crib-beds, no such management is permitted to be visited upon the inmates of the Georgia asylum. Straps, straight jackets, crib-beds and like instruments of cruelty are conspicuous by their absence in our state asylum. No such appliance can be found on the premises. The law of kindness is more constantly and unweariedly visited upon the inmates of the Georgia asylum than in any institution of the kind known to me. Three years ago I, at the request of the board of trustees, visited a number of insane asylums in other states, and was surprised to find that these instruments of cruelty constituted

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a part of the treatment in several of them. The non-coercive plan of treatment of the insane has been gradually developed into its present high state of perfection by a number of skilled and humane asylum superintendents, prominent among whom is Superintendent Powell, of the Georgia asylum. Insane asylums are no longer regarded as mere prisons for confining lunatics dangerous to the public. At the present day these institutions are properly regarded as hospitals into which this un- fortunate class can be received for skillful treatment and tenderest care. If patients are sent to the asylum when insanity is acute, many are permanently restored to sanity. The records of the Georgia lunatic asylum, of late, show that 38 per cent. of acute cases are restored. Incurable cases are skillfully and tenderly cared for by the authorities of the institution, kept from irritation by the unthoughtful, and prevented from becoming dangerous to the public. Since the prison management system has disappeared, lunatics now regard physicians and nurses as tender, loving friends, willing and anxious to render them every service necessary to their con- venience and comfort, and therefore patients co-operate with, instead of resisting them, as under the former regime. The substitution of kindness for coercive measures is the greatest advance of modern insane asylum management. In our state asylum every patient is placed as nearly as possible under homelike environ- ment, as to conveniences and comforts, and his or her associates selected with scrupulous care for his or her welfare.

Lunatics are helpless as little children, and require the same constant care and nursing. There are 287 employes constantly engaged in the service of the insti- tution. One hundred and fifty-five of them are solely engaged in the duties of nursing the insane. The remainder are occupied in the laundry, gardens, dairy, dining rooms, carpenter shops, boiler rooms, and farm work. The item of wages to these employes amounts annually to $42,000. The management of the lunatic asylum by law vests in a board of trustees, ten in number, who are biennially appointed by the governor. They have authority to prescribe all the rules and regulations for the management of the institution, appoint all officers, point out their duties, and fix their salaries, etc., and exercise supervision over all interests of the asylum. The board of trustees are: President, G. A. Cabaniss, of Atlanta; vice-president, R. B. Nisbet, M. D., Eatonton; secretary, Eugene Foster, M. D., Augusta; T. M. Hunt, Sparta; J. H. Nichols, Narchoochee; W. T. McArthur, Mc- Arthur; T. S. Hopkins, M. D., Thomasville; R. F. Wattes, Lumpkin; W. A. Huff, Macon; J. P. Walker, M. D., Webster county. The immediate management of the asylum vests in Superintendent Powell, a highly skilled physician and an elegant gentleman. Superintendent Powell is particularly fitted for the position he holds, and has the love of his unfortunate charges to a degree rarely equaled in lunatic asylum management. He is a man of great tenderness of heart, and is constantly engaged in tender, self-sacrificing ministrations to his patients. He is the one man in Georgia fully qualified for the high office which he holds. He has held this office since 1878. Under his management the institution has from time to time been improved so as to meet all requirements of modern treatment of the insane. The Georgia lunatic asylum is regarded as one of the best in America, and reflects honor upon Georgia.

INSANITY IN THE STATE OF GEORGIA.

This is one of the most interesting and important questions for study by polit- ical economists and law-makers. Insanity among the white population of Georgia will be presented first. The United States census of 1860 makes the white popula- tion of the state 591,588; number of white insane, 447. Therefore the ratio of insanity was one to every 1,323 of our population. The census of 1870 shows a white population of 638,926; white insane, 634; i. e., one to every 1,007. The census

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of 1880, white population, 815,906; number of insane, 1,286-one insane person out of every 635 of the population. These facts startle us, and unquestionably demon- strate an alarming increase of insanity among our citizens. While many causes contribute to the increase of insanity, there can be no question that the cause above all others is the changed condition of our people-poverty succeeding affluence- the struggle for existence. Prior to the war our population was one of the most contented and prosperous of any in the United States. Our property was swept away by the fortunes of war, and our people left in a condition of positive bank- ruptcy. Under the mental and physical strain thus induced, great increase of insanity resulted. From 1870 to 1880 the census reports show that the ratio of insanity in Georgia had more than doubled in the decade. This would seem strange, did we not remember that the poverty of the masses was greater in the decade 1870 to 1880 than it was in that of 1860 to 1870.

Let us compare the ratio of the white insane of Georgia with that of other states. The following tabular statement by Dr. O. W. Wright, of Wisconsin, made several years ago, gives us a valuable insight into the question of insanity in the United States. It shows the number of population in which one insane person is found: New England states, one insane person to every 359; middle states, one to every 424; interior states, one to every 610; northwestern states, one to 750; extreme southern states, one to 935; Pacific slope, one to 385.

RATIO OF INSANITY IN GEORGIA.

A comparison of the ratio of the white insane of Georgia with that of other states will, however, show that the ratio of insanity to population is less in Georgia than in any of the older states in the Union, except Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. The reason is to be found in the absence of an influx of the pauper foreign population which has overrun the northern and western states. The foreign population coming into Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas are of the better element of emigrants. All American statistics show that insanity is from one to three times more frequent in the foregn than among the native population. These statistical data demonstrate the necessity of legal enactments to prevent influx of pauper foreign immigration into Georgia. The better class of foreign emigrants can be safely admitted, welcomed among us, but the pauper element, together with the turbulent and lawless of foreign nations, should be forbidden to locate among us. Alarming as has been the increase of insanity among our white population since the war, it is insignificant as compared with that among the negroes. Referring again to the United States census reports, we find the following facts: Census of 1860: Negro population of Georgia, 465,698; number of insane negroes, 44; i. e., one to every 10,548 of colored inhabitants. Census of 1870: Negro population, 545,142; insane, 129, or one to every 4,225. Census of 1880: Negro population, 725,133; insane, 41I, or one to every 1,764 of our negro population. I have not the census returns on insane for 1890. The colored population in Georgia in 1890 was, according to the United States census, 858,815. There are 541 insane negroes in the asylum at present, and a large number of appli- cations on file for admission into the institution, but owing to the overcrowded con- dition of the building they cannot be received. Superintendent Powell estimates the number of insane negroes at 1,000, which would give one to every 858 of population of this race. Looking for the cause of this state of affairs, it is easily found in the changed condition of our negro population. The cause is here, too, to be found in the struggle for existence. It certainly cannot be attributed to heredity, for prior to the freedom of the negro, in 1865, he was practically exempt from mental diseases. A few idiots and epileptics were to be found here and there,

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but the ratio of insanity prior to freedom was only one to 10,584. That this increase is not even in part due to heredity is proven by the fact that but one generation has passed since freedom of the negro, and in the previous generation he was almost totally exempt from insanity. Therefore it seems impossible to account for this alarming increase of insanity among our negro population upon any other hypothesis than that of the struggle for existence, a struggle to which he was absolutely a stranger prior to the time when emancipation took this burden from the mind of the slave-owner and put it on the new-made freeman. While at present the white race, by reason of its higher mental development, has been more susceptible to insanity than the negro, there can be no question but that with the higher mental development of the latter race, in future, he will then be as susceptible to insanity as the white man, and I believe more so.

As alarming as has been the increase of insanity among the negro population of Georgia, it is nevertheless the fact that the ratio of insanity among the negroes of the state, compared with the total negro population, was less in 1880 in Georgia than in any state in the Union. From a valuable tabular statement compiled by Superintendent Powell, I find the following facts as to ratio of insanity among the negroes of each state and territory: In 1880-Alabama, one to every 1,460; Arizona, 77; Arkansas, 1,318; California, 44; Mississippi, 1,505; Missouri, 1,002; Montana, 173; Nebraska, 596; Colorado, 304; Connecticut, 360; Dakota, 133; Delaware, 550; District of Columbia, 480; Florida, 1,490; Georgia, 1,768; Illinois, 610; Indiana, 570; Iowa, 1,059; Kansas, 1, 105; Kentucky, 786; Louisiana, 1,590; Maine, 207; Maryland, 811; Massachusetts, 445; Michigan, 397; Minnesota, 312; Nevada, 488; New Jersey, 473; New Mexico, 253; New York, 333; North Carolina, 1,215; Ohio, 493; Oregon, 28; Pennsylvania, 488; Rhode Island, 462; South Carolina, 1,310; Tennessee, 1,107; Texas, 1,285; Utah, 116; Vermont, 211; Virginia, 912; Washington, 81; West Virginia, 699; Wisconsin, 300.

Facts show that the south-the home of the negro-is far more congenial to the mental integrity of the race than any section of the United States, northern philanthropists to the contrary; yet the fact remains that the negro in the south, dwelling among his former masters, is, as a race, more prosperous, contented and happier than when thrown into the activity and bustle surrounding him when he would dare enter into competition with the man from the land of wooden nutmegs. The negro insane of Georgia is, and must continue, an object of protection and care to our commonwealth. The trustees of the asylum, realizing the urgent need of additional provision for the negro insane in our midst, are now actively engaged enlarging the buildings for negroes. When these buildings shall have been com- pleted, asylum accommodations will have been provided for 270 more patients of this race.

PREFACE TO MEMOIRS OF DECEASED PHYSICIANS.

MEDICAL literature is abundant, and much of it of a high order from the pens of physicians of Georgia; yet our state is shamefully deficient in biographies of her great medical men. Memoirs exist of some of them, but they are scattered here and there in short-lived publications which are inaccessible to the general reader and even to the most of the medical profession-thus the object of these memoirs has been defeated.

This is the first effort ever made to rescue from impending oblivion the mem- ories of the great medical men of our commonwealth by gathering together in one book the record of their lives. Postponement of this sacred duty to this date renders the undertaking an extremely difficult one as to many of our predecessors, and as to not a few of them impossible of fulfillment.

Some of Georgia's noblest physicians have, after honorable, highly useful lives, gone out from among the children of men, and at the present time no trace of them can be found, sadly reminding us of the trackless course of a great vessel upon the billows of the mighty ocean. In many instances the great state of Georgia has preserved no record of even the dates of birth and death of men whose lives were spent in skilful, unending, unwearied toil and self sacrifice in humbly walking in the footsteps of "the Healer of Genesaret." The families of some of them are scattered into unknown regions, while in other instances family records are beyond the reach of men who would gladly write in letters of gold the noble record of their lives. In not a few instances I have found it impossible to obtain from next succeeding generations data sufficient to enable me to write suitable memoirs of their illustrious kinsmen. This is indeed a sad comment upon the vanity of human life, and forcibly reminds us of the forgetfulness which awaits the highest and noblest services of man to his fellows.

When I was charged with this sacred trust I entered earnestly upon its fulfill- ment. I sought the aid of many prominent professional brethren, asking them to suggest to me the names of distinguished deceased physicians of our state whose biographies should be written, and requesting their co-operation in the work. I sought the aid of my brethren in order, first, that I might impartially discharge the duty of selection of subjects of memoirs; second, want of personal acquaintance with many of these prominent men rendered it impossible for me to write suitable sketches of them. I therefore sought assistance of my brethren who were per- sonal friends or intimate acquaintances of the deceased, and who were thereby sufficiently familiar with their life work to enable them to accurately estimate these men and faithfully discharge this delicate task. From those whose co-operation I sought came prompt promises of compliance. Some of these pledges were promptly fulfilled, while some were never redeemed. The list of biographies fails of many names whose services to suffering humanity rendered them worthy of the highest praise and everlasting remembrance. These omissions, however, were through no intentional fault of mine. In some instances it was impossible, through mutations of time and circumstances, to gather together the data necessary to

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such work. In other instances the list fails because I did not, and under the circumstances could not, know enough of the men to properly estimate their worth. As best I could I have conscientiously discharged the sacred duty to my dead brethren. It has been a labor of love to men whose memories I delight to revere, notwithstanding I never knew some of them. In some instances I have adopted biographies written by men whose familiarity with the deceased specially qualified them for the work. In such cases I have endeavored to give credit to the writers. Each and all of the learned professions speak to succeeding gen- erations through the lives of their great men. I feel assured that the medical profession of Georgia furnished a grcater ratio of distinguished men than did any other one of the learned callings. The men whose biographies are here presented were not equally great.

"Order is heaven's first law, and this confess'd, Some are, and must be, greater than the rest."

Some of them were great because of their marvelous genius; some great because of their resplendent character; some great because of their utter unsel- fishness-unweariedly devoting their time and talent in gratuitously ministering to the sick and wounded whenever and wherever called; some were great in heroic discharge of duty in unflinchingly battling with "the pestilence that walketh in darkness"; others were great because of the thousands of little, unre- membered acts of kindness and love bestowed upon their fellows in their daily work; some of them were great in that they surmounted the obstacles of humble birth and defective education, and by dint of personal merit became the peers of those who entered the profession under the favoring auspices of family prestige, wealth and erudition; some were great because they exemplified each and all of these virtues; all of them were great in that their conduct was inspired and guided by integrity. None of them were perfect. The wisest and the noblest of men have erred. I have not attempted to point out their foibles. Let us draw the veil of charity over their faults, whatever they may have been, and withhold not from their memories the praise which their virtues so richly merited. Let the lesson of their lives speak to the present and future generation by showing that they deliberately selected the better part of life, and steadfastly pursued it; valued duty above reputation, and the approval of conscience more than worldly wealth or human adulation. Almost all of them died poor in worldly goods, yet each of them was rich in the noblest of possessions-character. Many of them sleep in graves over which not so much as a rude headstone has been placed to mark the spot in which their bodies rest, yet, by their noble deeds they, while living, wrote their epitaphs in the annals of their profession, and in the hearts of those for whom they had so unselfishly, so nobly labored.

"To live in hearts we leave behind, Is not to die."

There are scores of living physicians in our commonwealth who by their lives and their services to their fellows richly merit the plaudits of a grateful people, yet I have not attempted to write their biographies. From the large number of these noble men I cannot attempt to select. Such an effort would necessarily prove invidious. I therefore leave this task for someone who shall prove himself equal to the delicate, trying position.

EUGENE FOSTER.

MEMOIRS OF DECEASED PHYSICIANS.

DR. MILTON ANTONY was born on Aug. 7, 1789. His father removed to Georgia when he was quite a young man and settled in Jasper county. The limited circumstances of his parents prevented his receiving the benefits of scholastic instruction for a longer period than two and a half years. He left the village academy of Washington at the age of sixteen and entered the office of Dr. Joel Abbot. At the age of nineteen he went to Philadelphia and attended a course of medical lectures. His means prevented his staying longer than one winter, and as this, with similar universities, required the completion of a second course before graduation, he was compelled to come back without a diploma. Returning to Savannah almost penniless, he wended his way homeward with his satchel on his back to take his place on the busv stage of life. The auspices under which he commenced his career were anything but flattering; he had not the support of wealthy relatives to sustain him, nor the aid of influential friends to pet him into greatness. He appeared before the people of Monticello with the simple commendation of his preceptor, and commenced the duties of a practitioner in his twentieth year. Yet there were some circumstances which gave promise of future distinction and usefulness. He had formed correct habits: his young imagination had been captivated bv the excellence of knowledge: his thirst for information could not be satisfied: his mind was strong, his will virtuous and his industry untiring. Seven years Dr. Antony stayed in Monticello carrying on an extensive practice, and laying the foundation of his future eminence. De- siring a more enlarged sphere, he removed to New Orleans, La. The effects of the climate upon a young and large family induced him to change his field after a short residence, and in the spring of 1819 he came to Augusta and began the practice which. upon the death of his friend, Dr. Anderson Watkins, was so large as to exceed his ability to attend it. Had he confined himself to his professional duties he would have doubtless been exempted from much toil, and from many perplexities, but he would have gone down to his grave without accomplishing the high ends for which God had made him. The elevation of his profession in Georgia was with him an object of fervent desire, and most of the last seventeen years of his life was spent to secure it. In 1822 he was prominent in forming the medical society of Augusta. In 1825 he, with a few others, applied to the legis- lature requesting the appointment of a state board of medical examiners, whose duty it should be to meet annually at Milledgeville, examine applicants and grant license to practice within the limits of the state. His plan was adopted and he was unanimously chosen president of the examining board. In 1828 he again went to Milledgeville, sustained by a few physicians of Augusta, and by distin- guished men of the state, desiring a charter for a medical academy. His object was to improve students of medicine by making them read longer and more thor- oughly than then accustomed to do. and to make the academy a preparatory

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Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. II, Part 24

Author: Publication date: 1859 Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association Number of Pages: 1166

Author:
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association
Number of Pages: 1166