Posts tagged asylum
Acquired Chronic Internal Hydrocephaly
Patient was 60 years old. At one point possessed considerable intellect as well as musical ability and ability to work. Later in life became blind, partially deaf, with some spasticity of lower limbs. Never had convulsive attacks, fair health aside form brain disease.
Brain 1,240 g when emptied, contained 2,400 cubic centimeters of fluid.
You can see here the extreme results of the blockage of the cerebral aqueduct connected to the fourth ventricle.
This man’s hydrocephaly developed later in life, when his skull was fully formed, so outwardly he did not show deformity (aside from a slight bulging of the eyes). However, the pressure of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) caused his optic chiasma to become flattened, shrunken, and greyish in color.
Interestingly, though this man lost many of his basic functions due to the increasing severity of his hydrocephalus over the last part of his life (as more and more CSF became stuck in his fourth ventricle), he actually retained a fair amount of intelligence and ability to reason and speak. This is because his frontal and prefrontal cortex (his frontal lobe) were almost completely spared the effects shown in the central and posterior cerebrum (parietal, temporal, limbic, and occipital lobes).
If you look at the position of the fourth ventricle in the brain (just above the cerebellum, behind the brainstem, lower than the other ventricles), you can see why the occipital lobe, which processes sight, would be affected before the other regions of the brain, and why this patient experienced those specific symptoms, yet still retained his intelligence.
Illustrations of the Gross Morbid Anatomy of the Brain in the Insane. I.W. Blackburn, 1908.
ETA: The hydrocephalus is labeled “congenital”, because the pathologist supposed that the blockage of the cerebral aqueduct was due to a benign tumor, present from birth, that had simply grown large enough to cause problems.
Hydrotherapy Wrapping, St. Elizabeths, courtesy National Archives
Hydrotherepy
The plunge bath, douche bath, continuous bath, needle bath, and so on, fell under hydrotherapy treatment. In theory, the treatment should have been effective and fairly humane. Warm, soothing baths would help patients sleep, while a plunge bath, using water at temperatures between 45-70 degrees, might shock a violent patient into settling down. Though uncomfortable, such a treatment was preferable to being wrestled to the ground or restrained.
Even at the best of times, hydrotherapy tended to be uncomfortable. Many doctors thought cold water treatment was superior to warm, and believed treatments should be administered in the morning just as the patient arose. Many medical people believed that warm baths opened up the pores so that a person could catch cold more easily.
Plunge baths and other cold water hydrotherapy were believed to be invigorating for patients, though other doctors thought it absurd to think that any person–sick or well–would enjoy emerging from a warm bed in order to plunge into a cold bath. Unfortunately, patients had no say in the matter and had to live with whichever theory their own doctor adhered to.
Morgue.
Questionable Health Tips Night:
Don’t be a farmer’s wife. You WILL go crazy.
Dr. Foote’s Hand-Book of Health-Hints and Ready Recipes. E.B. Foote, 1882.
Image of Rhoda Derry a patient in Bartonville Asylum
Rhoda Derry was born in Adams County. She was the daughter of a wealthy farmer and she was a strikingly handsome girl. While still in her teens, she was wooed by the son of a neighboring farmer. The young man’s family were apposed to the match. In order to prevent the young couple from marrying, the young man’s mother visited the girl and threatened to bewitch the girl if she didn’t release him from the engagement. The girl was so terrified by the mother’s threat that she started to display all the signs of a person possesed by an evil spirit.
One night shortly after the threat, Rhoda came home, jumped on the bed and stood on her head spinning around like a top and declared that the “Old Scratch” was after her. For a short time she was cared for by her relatives but was eventually sent to the Adams County Poor House. She remained there for 40 years.
The inhumane treatment of the poor girl at the Adams County Poor House is unparalleled. For many years she lived in a basket lined with straw and cared for by other feeble minded patients. During this time her legs drew up until her knee nearly touched her chin. Her muscles became so atrophied it was impossible for her to move her legs or her hips.
After years passed the basket was replaced with wooden box with holes for wastes to pass through in to a pan beneath the box. Mice and other vermin crawled into the box, made nests and raise their families next to the poor woman.
With her long fingernails she would scratch at her eyes until she went blind. With her fists she would beat her face until her front teeth were knocked out. She had also lost her ability to speak. When placed on the floor she would hop along like a toad. In 1904 she was taken from these surrounding and placed in the Bartonville Asylum. She was taken to the hospital for woman where she was bathed regularly and slept between clean white sheets.
A very interesting historic case, but sadly not all that extreme for the time. Worse than most, of course, but not nearly as much worse as you’d think. Why do you think the Utica cage existed?
The Utica Crib for uncooperative patients at insane asylums, and later, at (somewhat) more legitimate “institutions”.
Wisconsin State Hospital for the Insane in Madison, WI. 1860.
Now known as the Mendota Mental Health Institute. The woods and marshland around it are beautiful, and there are massive eagle effigy mounds on the grounds. Grew up about 5 minutes from there.
A blog for all biological and medical ephemera, from the age of Abraham through the era of medical quackery and cure-all nostrums. Featuring illustrations, history, and totally useless trivia from the diverse realms of nature and medicine.
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