The Treatment of Cases of Mental Disorder in General Hospitals (Reprinted from the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. clxx, No. 17, pp. 637–642, April 23rd, 1914.) Philip Coombs Knapp, A.M., M.D.

Extract

The author maintains the thesis that acute and borderland cases of mental disease can be received and temporarily cared for in general hospitals. He admits that mental patients are not looked upon with favour by the nursing staff or by the other patients, on account of—in many cases—their restless, noisy conduct. Yet almost all general hospitals must include at times among their inmates some patients who, in the course of treatment for such conditions as acute infections, accidents, etc., become turbulent and violent.