Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, APRIL 18, 1910. SOME NELSON WANTS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 18 April 1910, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, APRIL 18, 1910. SOME NELSON WANTS.

AT THE ASYLUM AND POLICE STATION. SU.UE time ago attention was drawn in these columns to the conveyance of y demented man in an open express van from the Nelson Hospital grounds to the rolice Station tied down on a mattress. It was then pointed out that as the Mental Hospital was not far away it would have been-ordinarily sensible and humane administration to have borrowed a strait-jacket. But it appears that although the closeness of the Mental Hospital to the General Hospital is not always availed of when redtapery and roundabout methods m;;y be avoided, it is taken advantage of in a manner by no means pleasant or satisfactory in one other way at least, for the morgue of the two institutions seems to be used in common—and'that ghastly memento of our common ultimate fate is at the general hospital, near the operating room and kitchen in full view of all convalescent- patients. * * * * » *

It will b?. remembered that during the past few weeks an epidemic of gastric influenza lias prevailed in the Mental Hospital. In several of the cases heart trouble has supervened, followed by death. As it is the rule to lioid inquests on all deaths at the institution, the remains have been deposited in the oem-rat Hospital morgue pending the arrival of the Coroner. Now, while the Mental Hospital and the General Hospital ai'e not far from each other, and the- neighbourhood has not much traffic, there is quite tnough casual traffic to justi' ordinary precaution against the spread of contagion, and that can hardly be taken when corpses of those who have died from thejsequeilae of an infectious complaint aie being carted through public streets. Again, the lugubrious stir of the beavers of dead bodies in the precincts of a General Hospital depositing those bodies in a morgue quite within th?. view of patient;; is not calculated to inspire these patients with hopefulness, except with regard to a future life beyond the grave, probably suggest, d r:l ready by the morgue motto "Rcsurgam." Even when one such corpse was brought the circumstances would be painful to onivoking patients. But when it is considered that tilde have been six or seven deaths at the Mental Hospital covering a period of some we;ks, the frequency of the use of the Hospital morgue must have been very depressing.

t « 4 ft « • T|here is no reason why lhe Mental Hospital should not have a morgue of its own, except on the ground of Government economy, which cannot be permitted to ignore the legitimate limitations imposed by the Health Act, or the demands which convention makes with regard to the feelings of patients in the near-by General Hospital. Deaths occift' with more or less normal frequency at the Asylum for Insane, and as the law requires that an inquest shall be held in each case, it is obvious that there should be- a morgue in the grounds of the institution where the bodies might await the arrival of the coroner. To convey such bodies from tim 0 to time to the morgue in the grounds of the General Hospital is distinctly objectionable, and it is a marvel that the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board has suffered it to be done without protest. With regard to the conveyance of the insane who have died through gastric influenza, the unpleasant practice to which allusion is made has been aggravated by taking the corpses along the public highway—an action which, in private individuals, might have been followed by an inquiry, to ascertain in what degree the laws safeguarding the public from contagion with respect to infectious diseases had been broken.

Another requirement in which the Nelson Stale institutions are deficient is a padded cell at the police gaol. Occasionally at least- there are cases in the hands of the police where violent prisoners, elemented by drink, or in a state ol madness, give the utmost trouble, en dangering their own lives. Had it not been for the commendable vigilance a'lQ personal efforts of the local police theremight have been more than one Nation tragedy here, owing to the absence of a padded cell in which persons suffering from delirium tremens- or mania may be placed. The equipment of such a cell would not cost much, any more than the erection of a small building for a morgue at the Mental Hospital; and it is hoped that the petition to the Minister for Justice which the justices of the peace at Nelson have forwarded recently will have tile prompt attention it deserves. Police and newspaper men alike have, been "on the tenterhooks" expecting some ghastly tragedy at the station due to a demented prisoner dashing out his brains against the cell walls. Fortunately none has occurred, primarily because the local staff of policemen have held down such persons for hours and thus saved them from themselves. But it is a scandal that there should be resort to such crude methods of prevention when a few pounds would equip the station with a proper padded cell, where a madman might throw himself about without much danger.