Emmett Cooper Dent

E.C. Dent, 1857-1906

Wet sheet pack. E. C. Dent, "Hydriatic procedures as an adjunct in the treatment of insanity," Proceedings of the American Medico-Psychological Association, 1902.

Emmett Cooper Dent devoted his life to the care and treatment of the insane. From 1879 until his death in 1906, he supervised the women's asylum in New York City, and was named superintendent of Manhattan State Hospital when the city asylums were consolidated and put under state control in 1905. He was among the first to introduce hydrotherapy as a treatment for the insane in state hospitals, greatly reducing the use of sedative and tonic drugs by doing so. He credited his knowledge of hydrotherapeutic techniques to Simon Baruch, who trained both Dent and his staff in their use.