This postcard from the D'Angelo Library Archives depicts the Still-Hildreth Osteopathic Sanatorium in Macon, Missouri, the first osteopathic neuropsychiatric institution. It was the subject of Andrew Taylor Still's last dictated message:
"Dear Boys and Girls: I know you are keeping your eyes on the progress that is being made at Macon, Mo., in the treatment of mental and nervous diseases. We have had a great deal of experience. My personal experience covers a period of something over fifty years in the treatment of mental cases, but until Arthur [Hildreth] and the boys, Charlie and Harry [Still's sons] became interested in the Macon sanatorium, we never had a place where we had a chance to look after this class of patients. I have always contended that a majority of the insane patients could be treated successfully by osteopathy, and the success that the boys have been having in the last three and one half years bears out my faith, and I am very anxious for the entire profession to know of the work that is being done."
The above message was enclosed with a letter sent out in 1917 by Dr. Charles Still that read, "The above is the Christmas greeting that Father intended sending out to all the boys and girls in the field practicing osteopathy. He has been so interested in the work at Macon, he felt that it was the crowning sheaf in his life's work. He, however, had a stroke of paralysis that terminated fatally before the greeting was sent." (1)
Before he came to Still-Hildreth, Charles E. Still, A. T. Still's oldest surviving son, known as Dr. Charlie, founded the A. T. Still Park Springs Sanatorium in Bentonville, Arkansas in 1911. It consisted of a large brick house and six-two room cottages in the center of a large wooded park as can be seen in this postcard.
It was staffed by three osteopathic physicians and nurses who had been trained at the American School of Osteopathy Nurses' training School. As part of the osteopathic philosophy of treating the whole person, Dr. Charlie thought his patients would benefit from the beautiful Ozark scenery, the four thousand feet of flowered walkways, and the four springs on the property, one of which was thought to aid intestinal disorders, while another contained properties of a diuretic nature. (2)
In 1913 A. T. Still called Charlie back to Kirksville, Missouri. He had an ambitious project in mind involving a former military academy in Macon, about thirty miles to the south. Built in 1899 by Prussian millionare Frederick Blees, the main building was four stories high, with rooms built around an open atrium with a frosted glass roof above that let light stream into the upper three flours. A grand stairway of ornate steel rose from the main floor to a huge two-story glass domed court. The floors were made of marble and large pillars supported the high ceilings. The former academy included four hundred acres with two lakes. It was A. T. Still's vision to turn the property into an osteopathic sanatorium to treat nervous and mental diseases. (3)
In 1913 psychiatry was still a relatively young specialty. Eminent psychiatists and neurologists of the day believed most forms of insanity were incurable but Still had seen many psychiatric patients cured by osteopathy. He believed spinal abnormalities capable of irritating vasomotor nerves and disturbing cranial blood circulation contributed to insanity. (4) This belief in an osteopathic cure for insanity was shared by Arthur Hildreth, DO, who Still tapped to be superintendent of the new facility. Hildreth was a graduate of the first class of the American School of Osteopathy and a lifelong friend of Still's. In his book, The Lengthening Shadow of Dr. Andrew Taylor Still, Hildreth recounts many instances of osteopathy curing the mentally ill, but because of the denial of treatment privileges for osteopathic physicians in state institutions, the patient often had to have a family member check them out for a "ride in the country" to receive osteopathic treatment. On September 23, 1913, the Osteopathic Sanitorium Company purchased the property from Blees' widow for $600,000. Arthur Hildreth, DO was president and superintendent, Charles E. Still, DO, was vice-president, and Harry M. Still, DO, was the secretary-treasurer. (5)
The property had been vacant since the military academy closed in 1907 after Frederick Blees' death and needed a lot of work. By the time the sanatorium opened March 1, 1914 the main building contained one hundred twenty sleeping rooms, twelve deluxe apartments, offices and treatment rooms, a dining room that could seat four hundred, an auditorium, music room, library and billiards. An annex building that had once been a gymnasium, had been converted into quarters for those patients who needed more resticted care.
At the opening A. T. Still stated, "I think it will give us a chance to know, teach, and remove the causes of insanity and relieve the unfortunate person by removing the producing cause, which we have demonstrated in many cases to be a spinal abnormality or dislocation of the bones of the spine, which we find to be tru in the dissection of all the insane subjects that we have examined in the last seven years. Go on with the good work; you have my hearty approval. I will say go on and on." (6)
The first patient showed up at Still-Hildreth Sanatorium on March, 4. Within a month they had sixteen and by the end of the first year seventy. Eventually so many patients flocked to Macon that a new railroad line was put in. (7). The next blog post will examine the methods of treatment used at the sanatorium and how those methods compared to allopathic institutions.
Notes
1. Hildreth AG. The Lengthening Shadow of Dr. Andrew Taylor Still, Macon, MO, A. G. Hildreth; 1938
2. Warner G. The First School of Osteopathic Medicine, Kirksville Missouri, The Thomas Jefferson University Press at Northeast Missouri State University;1992.
3. Ibid.
4. Lewis, JR. A. T. Still: From the Dry Bone to the Living Man. Gwenedd, Wales, United Kingdom: Dry Bone Press; 2013.
5. Ibid, Walter.
6. Ibid. Hildreth.
7. Ibid Lewis.
0 Comments.