 |
 |
|
|
The four-volume history of psychiatry in America, The Institutional Care of the Insane in the U.S. and Canada, is monumental in its scope and depth. The credit for its creation goes to a man who is almost forgotten. Henry Mills Hurd, M.D., merits recognition both by virtue of this veritable epic and an unusual career that preceded that of Adolf Meyer at Johns Hopkins.
-Dilip Ramchandani, M.D.
History Notes Editor
By Lucy D. Ozarin, M.D.
At the annual meeting of the American Medico-Psychological Association (prior name of the American Psychiatric Association) in Baltimore in 1897, the presidential address of Dr. Powell of Georgia was titled "A Sketch of Psychiatry in the Southern States." At the annual meeting the following year, a question was raised about preparation of a history of psychiatry in America. No action was taken until 1908, when the council recommended that the president appoint a committee to write such a history. Dr. Henry Hurd, superintendent of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and an editor of the American Journal of Insanity (prior name of the American Journal of Psychiatry) was appointed chair of the committee.
Dr. Hurd was born and educated in Michigan. Upon receiving his medical degree in 1866, he served at the Kalamazoo State Hospital and then became superintendent of the Pontiac State Hospital in 1899. Dr. Hurd was invited by Johns Hopkins University to head the newly opened general hospital. He was a professor of psychiatry at the medical school and worked at the hospital in the company of the likes of Osler, Halstead, Welsch, and Kelly. Dr Hurd was active on the national front in a variety of medical and psychiatric organizations and interacted with famous psychiatrists such as James Kirkbride and Isaac Ray. He was elected president of the American Medico-Psychological Association for the 1898-99 term. Thus his appointment to this onerous responsibility of compiling a history was no accident.
Dr. Hurd divided the country into four regions and Canada and assigned each section to a subchair. Work began in earnest in 1910 and culminated in 1916 with publication of four large volumes. Every public and private mental hospital was named and described (149 public, 41 private) in varying detail, from a half page for Oak Lawn Retreat in Indiana to 45 pages for McLean Hospital in Massachusetts. The state hospital entries included history, significant developments, and changes. Many descriptions carried the names of board officers, superintendents, and physicians. Each state section was preceded by the history of the care of the insane in that state and legislative acts pertaining to the insane. Photographs of many hospitals are included.
Volume 1 of the series serves as a general introduction and is said to have been written almost entirely by Dr. Hurd. He begins with the founding of the Association in 1844, giving a brief summary of each annual meeting through 1913. The history of the American Journal of Insanity is recounted. Dorothea Dix (1812-1882) and her work receive a long chapter; many of the Association's 827 members at the time of the series' compilation had known her personally.
Volume 1 also summarizes the early care of the insane from colonial times and describes the care of the incurable insane and evolution of the existing system. Hospital architecture and the early related association "propositions" are noted. Medical and nonmedical treatment in vogue were mentioned, as were the founding of the psychopathic hospitals (Michigan was the first in 1902); training for hospital nurses and attendants; care of the criminally insane; insanity among immigrants, blacks, American Indians, Chinese, and Japanese; and the 1910 census in institutions (188,000).
The hospitals in Canada received similar descriptions in Volume 4. This volume also contains brief biographies and some photographs of more than 200 psychiatrists who had been involved with the care of the insane since colonial times.
The breadth of the series is mind-boggling. Its accomplishment is a tribute to Henry Hurd and his committee members, Drs. Drewry of Virginia, Dewey of Wisconsin, Pilgrim of New York, Blumer of Rhode Island, and Burgess of Quebec, all of whom were past presidents of the Association. Nothing like this monumental publication has been attempted since.