The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-01-29
tFRolf OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT

FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.
q NEW YORK. Dec. l, 1869.
n Surrounded on three sides by the rapid-howing
a current Of the East River the New York Lunatic
AsyIum occupies an isolated position. 1t is the
- northernmost, as the Smallpox Hospital is the
most southern, Of the long array of buildings,
" devoted to the city-charities, upon Blackweu's
~ island No situation could be more favorable
ior the treatment Of the unfortunate patients,
e aearly thousand in number, that are gathered
shers Bgt the hospital accommodations are de-
q The main building of the asylum consists of
az oeagon, three stories high, in gray stone, and
rso long wings which extOnd from it at rioE.
angles, in the shape of an L. A large spiral
staircese, in the octagon, leads to the entrances
Of these lateral wings.
There IL also supplementary hospital, for the
accommodation Of the patients who can not find
room in the main buildng,-a numerous surplus /;
and a mad-hOuse, provided with grated windows,
In which violent and dangerous cases are confined.
Ordinary visitors are not allowed admission TO
this building; and even physicians may not visit
Il exceDt by special permission from the super
intendeut of the asylum.
The visitor, as he passes this depot of the de-
mented, often hears their rawlings. 1t seems q
human Wasp-nest, full of stings and buzzings
and one not avoid the feeling that should he
nritate the hive by throwing stone at it,
1naddened swarm wOnld issue forth to resent the
insult.
Thanks, however, TO the progress of medical
Science, the lunatic, however violent he may be,
Is no longer regarded Il wild animal, vicious
beast, creature to be chained and subdued
sienter methods are now in vogue; and the
slightest restraints used, compatible with the
saiety of his fellow-suferers
The worst cases receive their meals in separate
1ooms; the milder lunatics cat at common tables,
one for the male and one for the female patients
I The sight they present is affecting one, and
goes far 10 explain the cruel and mistaken notions
that have been entertained, until lately, about
the character and the treatment of lunatics.
They seem, indeei, less like human beings than
like pack Of animals crOwding be fed. The
finer instincts of man are obscured and wrecked ;
there Is confused strife of the deranged faculties
and the patients struggle, push, gesticulate, and
scramble like the monkeys Mt the Paris Jardin
des PlaHtes when feeding, but with seemingly
less than their expression of conscious inteli-
gence- Keepers necessary to restrain them
from violence during their meals.
Iet many of the patients are quiet and gener-
ally rational ia their demeanor. Some of them
betray no evidence of insanity, except to the eye
OF an expert during protracted conversations ;
and it is only upon entering the affected mental
region that the traces of mOnomania become
evident Some Of these patients, indeed, are
hardly less sane than many people meet in
society and upon the street. No sharp and definite
classification OF the insane is possible. Nature
draws no distinct lines between any two of her
domains Each invndes the adjacent boundary.
The mineral world not be strictly separated
irom the vegetable world, nor this from the
animal; light and darkness, and even life and
ceeth blend with each other, and there is an in
stant when the two latter conditions are equally
present In the body. This universal principle of
01sTaPPEHg IN nature is strictly applicable to the
states OF sanity and of insanity. Some of our
friends at large are crazier people than many Of
the inmates of mad-houses And the serenest of
Us nave IN all probability, some little private
streaks and dashes of dezneutia.
but Tor practical purposes, definite line must
Oe draWn,-between those who are to live in the
insane asylum and those who are to live at home.
10 90 this with uniform accuracy and justice is
a "ne Of the most difficult questions of medical
SIienee nay, 1t is not always possible to do it.
we're Inc patient always given the benefit of the
oOuot' the accusation of false imprisonment in
mnatle asylums would at least be avoided, though
9 Tue risk of leaving dangerous persons at large.
O' 'ne only difficulty, in this as in other ques-
1ron7, is certainly not one of pure science.
N"4rieS Reade has shown in one of his best