On this page
-
Text (1)
-
A LUNATIC VILLAGE. 101
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Part Ii. {Concluded From P. 33.)
undertook the enterprise . He who j > lants a colony of any sort has upon his shoulders a responsibility not inferior to that of
_JEneas when he led his Trojans over the sea . It has been proposed to induce some of the nourriciers to emigrate to other parts of the
Campine , and to establish agricultural colonies as like to the original as they can be made ; for Gheel can only accommodate a fifth
part of the lunatics of Belgium ; and this plan , duly supplemented _Tby the medical profession and by the clergy , would probably
succeed . But in such colonies , as in Gheel itself , it is above all desirable
that they should not be considered as mere retreats where incurable lunatics can be well taken care of . It is in the early stages of the
malady that fresh air , liberty , and useful _occujpation are invaluable . It was stated above that the recoveries among those -who go
to Gheel under the head of curables are 50 and even 65 per cent . ; an ample testimony to the value of the principle exemplified in the
treatment pursued . To this resume of M . DuvaFs book we will add only a short
quotation from a letter written by an English gentleman well known to the world . He says" I visited Gheel in the course of a tour in
, search of pure water for Brussels , and bestowed a cursory attention upon the system pursued there . Dr . Parigot , the medical
superintendent of the arrangements , made a round with me among the mad folks air and , and famil showed y life me may statistics be safel in y allowed proof of to the an doctrine immense that maj < ori free ty
of mad people ; the cases of homicidal tendency and other cases requiring confinement being comparatively rare . Pinel , he
remarked , raised the madman from the condition of the criminal whom we detest , to the rank of the malade with whom we
sympathize , * and the new theory raises the malade , hitherto restrained through false unreasoning- fearto the rank of a free man ; kindly
, tended and guided , so far as his infirmity renders this necessary , but not , as heretofore , unjustly deprived of his _liberty . A large
proportion of the ailing persons thus restored to freedom are able , he contendsto take part in various sorts of laborand thus wholly
or partly to , earn their living , while enjoying the , largest possible measure which their malady ( according to its degree of severity in
each case ) permits of the rights and privileges of humanity . My own observations at Gheel confirmed the wisdom and humaneness
of the doctrine . I saw mad people doing field labor , carpenters ' work & c . ; others harmlessly wandering about , or basking away
their , time in freedom by the wayside , or sitting amidst the family of the cottage with whom each is quartered , frequently sympathized
with and sympathizing : a far less painful _sjDectacle than the same number of such folk confined in a madhouse . This freedom 1 is not ,
however , absolute , as the inhabitants of the surroundingvillages always notice and bring back stragglers ( of whom , however , there are very
few . ) Cases of disorder and violence occur , but they are not frequent .
A Lunatic Village. 101
A LUNATIC VILLAGE . 101
-
-
Citation
-
English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1861, page 101, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041861/page/29/
-