Anyone Could Be Insane

Alsa Thompson, Age 4

Early alienists did not spare many conditions when it came to assessing insanity. Alcohol abuse, syphilis, and epilepsy, were often considered forms of insanity, as were the physical manifestations of a severe form of niacin deficiency called pellagra. Women with severe PMS or menopausal symptoms, or even too much interest in sex, could also be considered insane. Children did not escape that label, either.

Publicity Surrounded This Unusual Case

In 1925, seven-year-old Alsa Thompson confessed to poisoning her family by putting sulphuric acid and ant paste in their evening meal. Fortunately, her intended victims found the taste so awful that they didn’t eat more than a bite or two of the meal, but the child’s troubled psyche had been exposed. Further investigation found that she had slashed her five-year-old sister’s wrists with a safety razor (which didn’t kill her), and had poisoned two canaries and a cat.

Judge Walter Gates dismissed the insanity complaint that had been brought against Alsa, but he did feel she needed to be under observation. He remanded Alsa into the custody of parole officer Jean McCracken of the local lunacy commission until she could be transferred to a state institution.

Some Contemporaries Obviously Doubted Alsa’s Confession

Newspaper accounts of the time mentioned that she did not seem bothered by the accusation and simply stated, “I like to see them die,” when questioned about her motives. Her father vigorously defended her, and others thought she was simply impressionable and confessed to a crime she did not commit.

Early Thoughts on Insanity

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Insane Asylum at Raleigh, North Carolina

The more settled eastern states generated most of the research and theory concerning insanity in the 1800s. Most asylum superintendents were both born and educated in the east, and the region produced and trained most asylum superintendents for many years. North Carolina, for example, did not even see a published paper on the topic of insanity from its state medical society until 1871. That paper, “Report of a Case of Violent Cerebral Excitement Relieved by Bromide of Potassium” involved a five-year-old boy. Only the standards of the time could have considered the child insane.

Death by Childbirth Insanity

The next paper was entitled, “Mania Transitoria” and described momentary insanity that befell people who were otherwise aware of their surroundings and actions. The doctor believed that this transitory state of insanity was related to heredity and certain physical diseases. That theory makes the condition sound like epilepsy, but the author seemed to think that it was something else.

Hysterical Epilepsy, circa 1876

Dr. Grissom attributed the condition to masturbation and petit mal epilepsy as well as the former factors, so it is difficult to know what he is describing. Since many people suffering epilepsy were considered insane during this era, it is quite possible that these episodes of transitory mania sent many otherwise capable men and women to an insane asylum.

Lucid Lunatics

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Life In An Insane Asylum Was Dangerous

One of the most heartbreaking–and frightening–aspects of treatment in an insane asylum was that so many patients probably were not insane. Native American patients at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians were rarely evaluated by any competent medical person before they were committed. Powerless and misunderstood, they were often railroaded into the asylum for convenience or spite.

Many white patients undoubtedly suffered the same fate. Women were also politically and financially powerless, and many inconvenient women may have been committed to asylums at the pleasure of their spouses, fathers, or other legal guardians. Diaries and letters that women wrote spoke passionately about how terrible asylums were, and how the rigid routines, loss of freedom, and frightening environment, were enough to make any sane person lose her mind. A woman who had little experience of the world, or who perhaps had never left her home without an escort, would be terrified in an asylum. One can only imagine the stress levels these wronged patients endured.

Patient at Surrey County Asylum, circa 1855, courtesy the Royal Photographic Society Collection, National Media Museum

Diagnoses were also at fault. Medical conditions like epilepsy were considered a part of insanity, and patients who could be effectively treated today, would have spent their lives in insane asylums. Other reasons for commitment were just as tragic. Commitment papers for patients admitted to the Western North Carolina Insane Asylum in Morganton, North Carolina during the two years ending November 30, 1908 included reasons like:

— cigarette smoking

— desire to marry

— cocaine habit

— hard work and nose bleed

Western North Carolina Insane Asylum

Though these diagnoses cannot tell the whole story, modern researchers have to wonder how much mental illness actually accompanied the patients’ conditions.

Winter Food

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Boy (son of Wolf Chief) Drying Corn, circa 1914, courtesy State Historical Society of North Dakota

Throughout the ages, people have had to energetically search for food to stay nourished; that task has always been much more difficult in winter. Like most other peoples, Native Americans worked hard to find and preserve enough food for their winter needs. Some game and fish might remain available during the cold months, but not usually in plentiful enough quantities to feed a whole population.

Convenient as these methods are to many of us today, freezing and canning are recent innovations. Napoleon Bonaparte offered a reward in 1795 to anyone who could discover a safe and reliable method to preserve food for his traveling army, and by 1810, both glass “bottling” and true tin “canning” had been invented. Neither of these methods were used by the masses, however, until John Mason invented his glass container with a molded screw-on thread at the top. Until that time and well after, drying, salting, and fermenting foods were the best methods of food preservation for many people.

Lillooet Indians Drying Berries, 1954, courtesy British Columbia Archives

Native Americans traditionally dried corn, beans, meat, fish, and other common foodstuffs. Food like berries and sweet corn could be sun-dried and eaten later as snacks or with other dishes. Salting and smoking often went together, and were used most often with fish and meat products. Meat (whether salted or unsalted) might be hung in racks over fires fueled by aromatic woods like mesquite or apple wood to both dry and flavor the end product.

Arapaho Camp With Buffalo Meat Drying Near Fort Dodge, Kansas, 1870, courtesy National Archives

Fermented foods like sauerkraut and pickles were not common among Native Americans, though they did eat some fermented foods. A type of Cherokee bread consisted of maize wrapped in corn leaves that then fermented for a couple of weeks; however, it was not a long-term storage item. Fish and meat items might also be allowed to ferment, but again, were eaten fairly quickly after fermentation.

Fry Bread

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Navajo Woman and Baby at Bosque Redondo, 1866, courtesy New Mexico State Monuments

Fry bread (or frybread) is associated with Native American cuisine, but it is not a traditional food for native peoples. The food originated during hard times, and is a symbol of both pride and pain.

In 1863 Gen. James Henry Carleton, commander of New Mexico Territory, rounded up Navajos and Mescalero Apaches in the Four Corners region and forcibly marched them from Ft. Defiance in Arizona to a camp called Bosque Redondo at Fort Sumner. Around 10,000 men, women, and children (including the elderly) walked 450 miles into this eastern New Mexico encampment. Many died along the way or were shot as stragglers. This tragic event is known as The Long Walk.

Once in Bosque Redondo–which was 40 square miles of shortgrass prairie and desert that wouldn’t support farming–at least 2,380 people died of exposure, disease, and hunger. The U.S. government finally issued commodity rations like white flour, lard, sugar, and canned goods to alleviate the misery. Fry bread was a filling meal these prisoners could make, though it was not a nutritious one.

Today fry bread is still a common food which is also popular and prominent at celebrations and powwows. The bread has been eaten for many years by Native Americans and represents a shared culinary experience among many tribes, but more importantly, it represents their perseverance and resiliency. Fry bread is a subsistence food that represents repression and hard times on one hand, yet speaks to triumph and tenacity on the other.

In 2005, the Bosque Redondo Memorial center opened as a place to mourn the dead and to celebrate survival.

Survivors of The Long Walk, 1864, at Fort Sumner

Navajo at Bosque Redondo

Eating to Live

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Native American Woman Using a Scaula Hoe in North Dakota circa 1912

Native American Woman Using a Scapula Hoe in North Dakota circa 1912

Autumn and harvest-time go hand in hand, and many people today are paying far more attention to their food than they have in the past. We are beginning to recognize that our food has changed dramatically over the years in terms of nutrition and safety; many families are trying to to get away from modern processed food and return to foods that are actually healthy.

Native Americans who lived off the land before they were displaced were probably healthier, with less degenerative diseases than people today. Foraged produce like dandelion greens have far more phytonutrients (natural chemicals found in food that aren’t essential to health but have many benefits to human nutrition, such as carotenoids) than spinach. The traditional colored corn types that Native Americans grew were rich in the anthocyanins that protect against cancer, high blood pressure, inflammation, and cholesterol. Today’s common grocery-store sweet corn has far fewer of these phytonutrients and much more sugar.

Native Americans ate regional foods, meaning that desert dwellers did not eat seafood and coastal dwellers did not eat prairie chicken. Locally grown fruits, vegetables, and grains produced seeds with traits that were well-suited for that region, leading to better crop success. Earlier foods were more bitter, less tender, and more fibrous than foods today; farmers have spent hundreds of years breeding crops for sweetness and tenderness, to the detriment of nutrition.

The growing interest in heritage foods may bring many forgotten foods back into the mainstream. Organic methods will also recall Native practices and enhance food safety. Native peoples lived in environmental balance and prove that it can be done.

Dandelions

Native American Farmer

Inspection Details

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In A Rake’s Progress, Tom Rakewell Loses His Fortune to Drink, Gambling, and Women, and Ends Up in an Insane Asylum

When insane asylums were inspected, nearly anything going on was fair game for examination. During St. Elizabeths’ 1906 investigation, Dr. Harry Hummer, who later became superintendent at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians gave testimony concerning gambling at the asylum.

Hummer was asked if he had heard of any case where “cards were played for money by the attendants and patients.” Hummer replied that he had heard of cases, though he did not believe attendants had been present. A police officer had informed Hummer that there was a game going on in the asylum’s smoke room under the bakery; Hummer called in the two patients and threatened to revoke their parole privileges (free time without attendants) if they did not stop. They said they would, but apparently shifted their game to an outdoor area. Hummer again threatened to revoke their parole privileges, but they swore they would not gamble again and he let them continue with their relative freedom.

Hummer was then asked if he had ever played cards at St. Elizabeths. Hummer said he had, generally about 3:00 p.m. with two of the night watchmen and perhaps a patient or two. They played a game called pedro. When asked if he ever played seven-up, Hummer replied, “I don’t believe so, sir–not as severe a game as that.”

Pedro (pronounced peedro) actually seems to be the more complicated game; it is difficult to understand why Dr. Hummer pronounced seven-up a “severe” game. The rules to both games can be found on the internet.

Men Playing All Fours, Also Known as Seven Up, Civil War Era

Men Playing Seven Up at a Boarding House

Inspection Results

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State Lunatic Asylum in Lincoln, Nebraska

The two federal institutions for the insane (St. Elizabeths and the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians) were investigated several times. In 1926, the comptroller general of the United States listed his findings concerning the investigation into St. Elizabeths. They included the following:

— The laws under which persons …are committed to the hospital are not adequate or sufficiently definite.

— There are too many patients in some of the wards, resulting in a crowded and unhealthy condition.

— Dining rooms, sitting rooms, toilets, baths, and other facilities of some of the wards are quite inadequate and most unsatisfactory.

— The fire hazard in certain wards is too great, and there does not appear to be sufficient fire fighting equipment.

— Several findings concerned the proper accounting of patients’ monies and valuables, including the need for a place to safeguard them.

Some of these 1926 findings were similar to those at Canton Asylum (overcrowding, inadequate facilities, and fire hazards). However, St. Elizabeths had 4,340 patients in June 1926, well over 50 times the number of patients at the Canton Asylum. The facility was not perfect, but by no means did it have 50 times the problems of its sister asylum. Undoubtedly St. Elizabeths’ leadership had something to do with its better performance.

Asylums were frequently inspected and investigated, and most had similar problems. Appropriations were generally set for a certain time period and included set numbers of personnel positions. Because funding wasn’t based on actual patient populations or patient to staff ratios, overcrowding could set off a cascade of problems. Facilities became inadequate and attendants became overburdened. In turn, stressed attendants probably lost patience or reacted less professionally with difficult patients. A new (and possibly sufficient) cycle of funding may have given an institution a chance to catch its figurative breath, but a new cycle of overcrowding was almost certain to begin shortly thereafter. As the public became more comfortable using insane asylums, their demands on these institutions created perpetual overcrowding. Insane asylums were often victims of their own success.

Overcrowding at Byberry (Philadelphia State Hospital) from a 1946 Department of Welfare Report

Patients Had to Sleep in Chairs at the Camarillo Mental Hospital, courtesy Camarillo State Hospital Historical Society

Asylum Comparisons

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St. Elizabeths Hospital for the Insane of the Army, Navy, and District of Columbia

St. Elizabeths and the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians were investigated a number of times during the early twentieth century. Both were federal insane asylums, but they were also quite different. St. Elizabeths was very much a medical facility, while the Canton Asylum was run along Indian boarding school lines. In 1927:

— St. Elizabeths had an amusement hall (Hitchcock Hall) for patients; Canton Asylum did not.

— St. Elizabeths had specialized buildings like cottages for tubercular patients and quarantine buildings; Canton Asylum did not.

St. Elizabeths had a 10,000 volume library and subscribed to 35 periodicals; in 1925 the Congressional Library began to send its surplus magazines to the asylum (about 1,000 a month); Canton Asylum received subscriptions to about half a dozen magazines.

St. Elizabeths had a furlough program which allowed patients to go home on trial visits; a social worker followed up on patients during these short visits; Canton Asylum actively discouraged furloughs for any reason. St. Elizabeths created an out-patient department for veterans who had been discharged from the military shortly after commitment. This department helped some patients find employment and tried to help them find a home so that they would not be overwhelmed when they were released. Canton Asylum did not help its patients this way.

A typical menu for a Tuesday midday meal at St. Elizabeths showed: bean soup, beef pot roast, gravy, browned potatoes, cucumbers, bread, oleo, and tapioca cream pudding. A menu for Canton Asylum (from the 1928 Meriam Report) showed: a stew of meat and carrots, with more fat and bones than anything else, thin apple sauce, bread, and coffee.

St. Elizabeths was significantly larger than the Canton Asylum, which gave it justification for some of its specialized facilities. However, its placement in Washington, DC and its patient population (veterans and citizens of the District of Columbia) also mattered. The American Red Cross, veterans’ groups, and the Knights of Columbus, as well as other civic organizations had easy access for volunteer work and aid of various kinds; the Canton Asylum had to depend on the kindness of small-town organizations like volunteer ministers and the Canton Band to help its patients.

However, both organizations had areas of weakness that investigations brought to light.

Dining Room at McLean Asylum for the Insane

Bear Cubs at St. Elizabeths’ Zoological Gardens

1906 Investigation

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The Washington Herald, 1911

When the Medico-Legal Society leveled charges of abuse against St. Elizabeths’s staff in 1906 (see last post), the public was understandably outraged. However, when the Society would not assist in an investigation nor even let others review its supposed records of the abuse, it lost credibility.

The Washington Herald sent a reporter to St. Elizabeths to investigate one of the “horrors” the Medico-Legal Society had particularly mentioned, the needle bath. “Evidently the informant of the committee as to this particular instrument of torture, was one of those individuals who never take a bath unless it is forced,” wrote the Herald’s reporter. He then described the needle bath (a form of hydrotherapy) as a “scientific shower bath,” and said that a patient undergoing “this particular ‘torture’ seemed to enjoy it.”

Though it is likely that certain attendants were rougher than they needed to be, or disobeyed orders against restraining patients, a subsequent investigation showed that rampant abuse did not exist. A surviving letter from a patient to his sister asserted that “the reports you have seen in the papers in Boston are not so.”

The patient went on to give a practical example of the care he was receiving. “Well, take me for a sample, I weigh more at present than I ever did before, then this should be sufficient to show that we have plenty to eat, and it is good, too.”

My next two posts will conclude the investigation.

Even a Useful Therapy Could be Misused and Abused

A Style of Needle Shower

Indians, Insanity, and American History Blog

Asylums And Insanity Treatments 1800 – 1935

Anyone Could Be Insane

Early Thoughts on Insanity

Lucid Lunatics

Winter Food

Fry Bread

Eating to Live

Inspection Details

Inspection Results

Asylum Comparisons

1906 Investigation