A sword Napoleon wore into battle in Italy 200 years ago was auctioned in France on Sunday for more than $6.4 million. We're very happy for whoever it was who shelled out all that money for a weapon that will remain with Napoleon's family.

But we can't help thinking that the 6½ million bucks could have kept two psychiatric units open at A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital for another 2½ years. For that matter, so could have millions of dollars paid to famous athletes, movie stars, CEOs and other captains of industry. However, the world doesn't work that way, and despite a valiant effort by Fox Hospital to keep the muchneeded facilities open, they're going to close.

Fox estimates that it will lose $2.5 million this year on the adolescent and adult units, and when you figure in the difficulty of attracting psychiatrists to this area, the hospital has little choice but to fold its cards. "It's a very difficult decision," said Fox President John Remillard. "We all know that mental-health services are needed in the region. It's not a question of need. It's become a question of 'can Fox provide it?' "At this point," Remillard said, "we don't think we can."

When Fox first announced last month that it was closing the units, the state Office of Mental Health asked the hospital to keep them open until June 30.

Fox officials then met with representatives from the state Office of Mental Health, whose spokesman had said the office intended to keep the units open and would work with Fox to do so.

The presumption was that the state would ride to the financial rescue like Napoleon's cavalry, but it never quite happened.

That is a real shame, too, because the adolescent unit is the only one anywhere around here. As of Monday, there were seven patients in the Fox adolescent unit and 12 in the adult unit.

Fox will need to submit a formal application to close the units. After it's granted, Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown will be the only psychiatric unit in Otsego County.

Bassett, with its 20 psychiatric beds now at "near" capacity, will also be the only psychiatric facility near Chenango, Delaware and Schoharie counties.

It doesn't, however, have an adolescent unit, and neither does Albany Medical Center, which is affiliated with Fox.

We cannot stress strongly enough how important the growing need for psychiatric care is for our area. It is quite literally a matter of life and death.

Parents of a child with serious mental-health issues will have no local place to turn to that can provide specialized help.

It is beyond sad that the efforts of a local hospital to provide such a vital service to so many people has met its Waterloo.