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28 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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Transcript
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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 ...
of those around them , and it is found tliat large numbers soon cease to like the degrading" distinction of idleness . Half , and sometimes
two-thirds , of the total are usefully employed . In the interior of the households , -women , young girls , and old men , mingled
indiscriminately / with the children and servants , participate in domestic work . Artisans—such as tailors , shoemakers , carpenters , bakers ,
blacksmiths , & c . —find their place in the local industry of the town . Some of them work on their own account , and get a fixed custom .
There was , formerly , to be found , and perhaps he is still there , an excellent cabinet-maker , who gained much money in his trade . This
man , a Dutchman by birth , having served in the French army , was made prisoner in Russia , and incorporated among the Cossacks . In
1815 , being in Belgium , among the ranks of the allies , he deserted , or rather seized liberty and nationality once more , and went to
Brussels to get married , where , however , he fell into hallucinations which necessitated his removal to Gheel . He lived there for
_Hveand-twenty years , exercising his trade successfully , and capable of reasoning soundly on every subject , except that he affirms that every
night the devil enters his body through his heels , and settles in some part thereof , a statement which invariably ends by a request
for a probe wherewith to oust the fiend . "Women trained to any manual art , dressmakers , embroiderers ,
and lacemakers , also find remunerative occupation in the town . Patients born and bred in the country are employed on the fields
and gardens , and care is taken to place those who have been laborers tinder charge of farmers . The most furious maniacs are
most desired by peasants and farmers , as showing more energy ; while of idiots or infirm patients no use can be made . Fits of fury ,
if only periodical , are soon brought under restraint , and it is found that active labor out of doors is a wholesome discipline which soon
tends to prevent their recurrence . Small sums in pocket-money are allotted for such work , and if the medical man advises the stimu- *
lus of any particular reward , he is always obeyed . It is true , that in good asylums the advantages of muscular . work in disciplining
and in curing the insane are now freely recognised ; but they seldom possess the S _23 aee and the arrangements necessary for securing it
to a number of men ; and even at the best there is an artificial character about such labor , which the insane are not slow to feel .
In the Russian asylums , which are organized on military principles , labor becomes a mechanical habit ; it is performed in mere
obedience to authority , and produces little effect . At Gheel , on the contrary , it is real exertion undertaken for a practical end ; the .
field which is ploughed , and the garden which is sown , both obviously conduce to the support of the family and the neighbors ; and the
laborer feels himself useful—a man among men . For women also the active toil of the householdand such out-door work as they
, are capable of performing , is far preferable to the eternal sewing
pursued in some establishments .
28 A Lunatic Village.
28 A _LUNATIC _VILLAGE .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1861, page 28, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031861/page/28/
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