27 Comments Posted by gordon

Is that Greenmount Cemetery on Greenmount Ave? If not you've got to visit there--it is a famous cemetery and has a complete listing on Wikipedia. It has a gatehouse designed in the Gothic Revival style, and is surrounded by a wall built in the mid 19th century. Famous people buried there include: John Wilkes Booth, Johns Hopkins (founded the University & hospital), Enoch Pratt (funded Baltimore Public Libraries & the nearby Sheppard Pratt psychiatric hospital), & Napoleon's sister-in-law. It's a great photo op.

It is amazing to see how primitive medicine was not that very long ago. You'd be hard pressed to find a medical device today that operates without electricity-I just read that some devices today require an internet connection! I had a great, great aunt who spent time in Eudowood Sanatorium in Towson, MD (long since demolished) and had an entire lung removed there. Anyway, great pictures and research. Hope you washed your hands when you left!

Nice to see folks receiving treatment from what appears to be well-trained, efficient nurses. In another 10 years, Life would publish photos taken at Byberry in Philly of naked, filthy men warehoused in hospital basements and sleeping on the floor. They were taken by conscientious objectors who served as orderlies there in WWII. Another interesting hydro treatment is the "cold wet pack" where sheets are soaked in icewater, then wrung out and wrapped tightly around a patient like a cocoon. This was done with manic patients to calm them. As their core body temperature falls, the brain shifts all of the body's energy into maintaining the temperature. As they have less energy, they calm down. It is said that the patient's lips turned blue and they shivered uncontrollably for hours.