{"id":496,"date":"2017-04-03T17:54:04","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T17:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/?page_id=496"},"modified":"2017-04-03T17:54:04","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T17:54:04","slug":"longview-asylum-good-intentions-gone-wrong","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/cincinnati-irish-births-and-deaths\/longview-asylum-good-intentions-gone-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Longview Asylum: Good Intentions Gone Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Gabriel Brown<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Longview Asylum has a long, storied history.\u00a0 On April 7th<\/sup>, 1856, the state legislature of Ohio passed an act which divided the state into three districts (Northern, Central, and Southern) for the purposes of treating the mentally ill (Genealogy Trails 2017).\u00a0 In less than a year, however, the legislature passed an act making Hamilton County its own district for the purposes of lunatic asylums, resulting in the building of Longview with the support of state funds.\u00a0 Built along the Miami & Erie Canal in what was considered part of Carthage, Longview Asylum had a capacity of 400 patients (Prout 2017).\u00a0 Thirty years later, it held 800 patients, was grossly underfunded, and contended with the open sewer the canal had become.\u00a0 Expansions continued throughout the 1900s, eventually raising capacity above 1000; even so, there were over 3000 patients at a time.<\/p>\n

While the history of the asylum itself is fascinating, a tale echoed by asylums and state hospitals around the nation, it is the history of its patients that is truly fascinating.\u00a0 The state of mental health care in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is a sordid tale, and one that would become the source of fears and nightmares.\u00a0 The Irish are known for their short tempers and rampant alcoholism, aspects which are only partially correct when applied to the whole of Irish people or Irish people in America.\u00a0 This stereotype of their behavior contributes to their reasons for entering Longview. \u00a0An analysis of Cincinnati death records reveals insights into how patients were treated at Longview, and an analysis of the patients of Irish birth adds an additional layer of intrigue.\u00a0\"Longview<\/p>\n

Supplied with the search terms \u201cLongview\u201d and \u201cIreland,\u201d the database of Cincinnati death records provides 122 results.\u00a0 Of these results, 78 were women (average age 59.8 years) and 44 men (average age 56.4 years).\u00a0 The average age of the entire sample was 58.6 years.\u00a0 From this sample, 74 patients are listed as having died from insanity (60.7%), but only two of them are listed as having died from insanity alone.\u00a0 Diagnoses appearing alongside insanity were acute dysentery (5.4% of the subset), dysentery (5.4%), Bright\u2019s disease (1.4%), cellulitis (1.4%), cerebral congestion (6.8%), cirrhosis (1.4%), general paralysis (8.1%), heart disease (10.8%), pneumonia (1.4%), manical exhaustion (2.7%), marasmus (36.5%), nephritis (2.7%), peritonitis (2.7%), phthisis pulmonalis (4%), pneumonia (4%), pulmonary hemorrhage (1.4%), ramolissement (2.7%), and senile exhaustion (1.4%).\u00a0 This means that, of this subset of 74 patients, approximately 28.4% died of causes relating to infection.\u00a0 In particular, dysentery can be linked to the conditions of the canal.\u00a0 All can be linked to the overcrowding of the asylum.\u00a0 All can be linked to horribly unsanitary conditions and probably mistreatment.<\/p>\n

Mistreatment may seem to be a bit of a stretch, but reviewing the list of causes of death illuminates the most common cause of death cited.\u00a0 Returning to the full sample of 122 patients, 29.5% have marasmus listed as a cause of death, either with insanity, in conjunction with another cause, or alone.\u00a0 Marasmus is a condition not often referenced in modern medical practice in the United States.\u00a0 It is a form of severe malnutrition, with symptoms including chronic diarrhea, vulnerability to respiratory infections, intellectual disability, dry skin, brittle hair, avolition, absence of energy, loss of muscle mass, and loss of subcutaneous fat (Healthline Media 2017).\u00a0 Today, marasmus is only found in developing countries that face severe food shortages and sanitation problems.\"Longview\"<\/p>\n

Finding marasmus to be the most commonly recorded cause of death among Irish patients of Longview tells us that these patients were being mistreated.\u00a0 Because marasmus is treatable, and may have been masked by other conditions, it is likely that many more patients suffered such mistreatment but survived long enough to be released prior to their deaths.\u00a0 This is not to say, of course, that other patients were not being mistreated, but 29.5% of a given population dying of the same cause is cause for concern.<\/p>\n

Imagine for a moment what is must have felt like.\u00a0 Cold, dark, smelling of too many unwashed bodies being crammed into the same space for too long, and an unrelenting odor of feces must have been part of their lives.\u00a0 The food was poor, when it was provided, because there simply wasn\u2019t money to buy enough to feed every patient regularly.\u00a0 If you are suffering from any of the many modern mental illnesses that fell into the umbrella term of \u201cinsanity,\u201d then the likelihood that the condition is worsened by your circumstances is fairly high.<\/p>\n

The sense of isolation invoked by such an environment might be exacerbated by a lack of familial contact.\u00a0 The majority of Irish patients in Longview were unmarried (see table below), and many were buried in the cemetery on the asylum grounds (St. Joseph\u2019s New was a close second, but more commonly with married and widowed patients).\u00a0 These factors compounded each other, and spread fear throughout the community that prevented other patients from seeking services.\u00a0 It also contributed to the stereotype of mentally ill patients, which likely resulted in more individuals being taken to the asylum without need, further straining already thin resources.<\/p>\n

\"Statuses\"<\/p>\n

The story of the Irish patients in Longview is not totally unique, but it provides a focus for teasing out information.\u00a0 Analyzing the reported causes of death hints at the poor state of accommodation and treatment for patients.\u00a0 These conditions perpetuated fears and stereotypes that lead to further taxing of an already burdened system.\u00a0 Thankfully, many of the practices that existed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have been replaced by more proven therapies, and it is no longer the norm to starve, beat, and torment patients in an effort to bring them back to sanity and \u201cnormality.\u201d\u00a0 What this analysis reminds us of, however, is that we must never forget this part of our history, especially when so many of us can claim Irish heritage and know of the other social struggles faced by the Irish in America and across the globe.<\/p>\n

Bibliography<\/h4>\n

\u201cCincinnati Birth and Death Records, 1865-1912.\u201d 2017. University of Cincinnati Digital Resource Commons. University of Cincinnati Historical Records.\u00a0http:\/\/digital.libraries.uc.edu\/collections\/birthdeath\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Genealogy Trails. 2017. \u201cState Facilities.\u201d Visited 28 March 2017. http:\/\/genealogytrails.com\/ohio\/ohioinsaneasylums.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

Healthline Media. 2017. \u201cWhat You Should Know About Marasmus.\u201d Visited 30 March 2017. http:\/\/www.healthline.com\/health\/marasmus#overview1<\/a><\/p>\n

Prout, Don. 2017. \u201cCincinnati Views: Hospitals 3.\u201d Visited 30 March 2017. http:\/\/www.cincinnativiews.net\/hospitals_part_3.htm<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Gabriel Brown Longview Asylum has a long, storied history.\u00a0 On April 7th, 1856, the state legislature of Ohio passed an act which divided the state into three districts (Northern, Central, and Southern) for the purposes of treating the mentally… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"parent":57,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-496","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":560,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/496\/revisions\/560"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}