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22 A LUNATIC VILLAGE.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Nected Happy Or Not With As Is We The A ...
tlons of an establishment where numbers of the insane are _gathered together . The minute delicacies of individual treatment , and the
nice adjustment of the liberties to the exact state of the insane patientis impossible in an asylum . The fourth resource , of colonising
_, the insane amidst a population of people in a normal condition , may sound a somewhat wild proposition , yet the system has actually
been carried out at Gheel for nearly a thousand years , where it grew quite up _withoii naturall t theory y under , and the develop stimulus ing like of devotion a tree from , created a seedling originall * , or y
a man from a child . Whether it can be imitated is another question ; but it is at least deeply interesting * to know with what success many
hundreds of insane people have been induced to dwell quietly among" hard-working * farmers and laborers , _generation succeeding
_generation from century to century . It was in 1856 that M . Jules Duval visited Gheel ; led there
partly by personal interest in one of the patients there residing , and partly from the account given by Dr . Parigot , of Brussels , who
had undertaken a medical championship of the colony . An article from the pen of M . Duval appeared in the Revue des deux Mondes
_, for November , 1857 , and occasioned lively discussion in Germany , England , Russia , and Austria . "Various medical men went to
investigate the facts asserted , and returned persuaded of their truth , and touched by what they had witnessed . The Government of the Low
Countries appointed a commission to draw up a _rej 3 ort on the spot . To aid in _sjDreading accurate knowledge , M . Jules Duval wrote the
book , ( published in I 860 , ) which we , for the same reason , bring before the notice of our readers in this Journal .
The insane patients brought by their friends in the early Christian times to the shrine of St . Dymphne , weredoubtless , considered
, as possessed of demons . In what way they were tended or controlled during the Middle Ages there are no written documents to
prove . The first distinct regulations preserved concerning Gheel do not date further back than 1676 . At that time , and very much
later , a system of severe restraint obtained in all European communities ; and the bailli of Gheel ordains that all those who take
domestic charge of idiots or madmen are to tie them _uj ) in such a manner that they can do no harm to others , ' under pain of
punishment to the said keepers . Neither are such idiots or madmen _, to be allowed to enter the parish , church of St . Amand ; the other
one , dedicated to St . Dymphne , being reserved for them . In 1747 the feeling of the administration manifests itself towards the patients :
they are on no account to be chained or tied without the knowledge and authority of the bailli or other constituted inspector ; and the
nourricier of all insane patients belonging to the Catholic religion is bound under forfeit to take care that the clergy are made aware of
their residence , in order that spiritual consolations may be imparted to all such as are capable of receiving them . An accurate list must
also be kept , in order that those who die may be properly buried .
22 A Lunatic Village.
22 A LUNATIC _VILLAGE .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1861, page 22, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031861/page/22/
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