Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1843-02-17
OF THE INSANE IN
RUSSIA.

Tho behaviour of the attendants is polite and
courteous; every fresh patient is received
very respectfully, and first taken into the So
ciety Of the most rational of the lunatics, who
have likewise acquired the same tone Of po-
likeness. Here it is shown the interesting
collections and productions of art; refresh
ments are brought him; he is invited to a
game at billiards or Backgammon, or may
converse if he likes it better; he is INDUCED
in every thing as far as possible, and thwart-
ed only in that which might be hurtful to him.
Employment, the beauties of nature, pleas
ant society, and recreation (; and, on the 9TH
er hand, darkness, solitary confinement, and
ennui, are the principal engines employed to
excite and 10 encourage, to soothe and to
tame. Next day, therefore, the new conner
is conducted to the work-rooms of the pa
tients, where they are engaged in carpenters
and pasteboard work, spinning, knitting, sew
ing, embroidery, &C., and asked whether he
likes any Of those occupations. If he takes
fancy TO one or the other of them, pains are
taken TO teach him, as it were in play: but,
if he shows and continues to show an aver
sion to all kinds Of bodily exertion, intellectu-
al employment, reading in the select library
of the institution, is allowed to those only
who are far advanced towards, a cure, he
is led out Of the work-rooms, lest as it is OBJ
served, the industrious gentlemen there should
be disturbed, and taken to solitary apart
ment, where sometimes he is attacked ere
long by ennui. he complains of it, he is
led back TO the work-rooms, and repeatedly
invited to join in some Of the operations go
ing forward there, with promise that he
shall then join in the tea-parties also. If he
is not susceptible Of ennui in the light room,
and persists in apathy or begins to be violent
he is shut up in the cushioned room, from
which even the most outrageous soon wish to
be released, because the very maddest per.
sons feel the need Of light in their widest I'M
dertakirgs, and darkness seems intolerable
even to the most frenzied imagination.
The Russians, from their sanguinc tenn.
temperament, are most liable to fits of ravins
madness. The Fins, a thick-blooded ant
choleric race, are more subject to melanchol,
and idlocy, which, latter occurs very rarely
among the Russians. But the Letters, poet
ic, good-natured, childlike, and frequentl,
childish people, furnish in general only harm
less lunatics. We saw several Russians il
strait waistcoats. At almost every farm
house in Livonia and Courland, you met will
Lettish lunatic, bedizened with ribbons
flowers, glass beads, and other fnery, VIII,
fancies himself a general or an emperor, ant
yet, decorated, with all the insignia of hi
station upon him, good-naturedly condo
scends to employ himself in cleaving WOO
and fetching wafer. A particula
diary is kept about every patient; also con
corning his work, for which small sum i
allowed him, that the insane seeing the pro
fit accruing from labor may be insiigated II
greater industry.-Most of the men employ
ed themselves with pasteboard work, trad,
which is easily learned, and the products o
which, as they speedily lead to some results
are not long in affording pleasure and prof,
OF the $50 patients in the house, in 1885
fifty we're dismissed, half of them cured, ant
the other half, as incurable, delivered up t.
their friends, at the desire of the latter ant
twenty-four died in the course of the year.
KhoFs Russia and the Russians in 1912.