Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1871-10-05

a writer, formerly an inmate in an in
sane asylum tells this sad story -
The deliberate rules enforced are to
oppose, to thwart to battle, to deny you
in every whim, wish, or fancy. How
you would shrink from the harsh voice
of that attendant, who seems to you il
the same scale as your own hired ser
want, when she says to you, " do this
and edo that" "come in" and "gc
out" "get up" and ego to bed" OF
threatens, at the slightest evidence OF
rebellion on your part, to lock you into
your room who watches you when you
eat, and declares that q doctor shall be
summoned to feed you with q tube, if
you do not eat the contents of plate OF
food which may be perfectly nNuseatin9
to you ! For it is true that there is Il
law in respect to eating here which is
positively disgraceful, and one for which
there is no necessity or excuse. In GER
tain cases the enforcement of it has no
relevancy to the original object for which
it was designed, so that it seems to be
converted into a sort Of torture for dis
contented patients. For the extremely
reduced and sick patients it is necessary
to give them nourishmcnt by means of a
tube else otherwise they would starve
butwhy have rational patients been made
familiar with this ugly mode of eating ?
Yet it is common operation for doc
tor or matron and an attendant to unite
their physical force, in older to thrust
what is called an eating tube down a
patients throat, because it may be he
did not relish dinner of coarse meat
and gravy, or dish of hulled corn and
sugar. 1t is not necessary here to enter
upon the astronomical equipments set
forth, under the misnomer of nourish-
mcnt for invaiils. That requires sepa-
rate mention but the facts stated Just
above form very prominent feature in
the dominant system of private asylum
life. For instance, lady patient comes
to the dinner table, where a plate Of
coarse, tough beef, covered with thick
gravy, and a boiled, waxy potato, are
set before her. Her appetite is delicate.
She could not eat perchance pigeons
wing, and this commingled mass is not
to her taste. She, knowing the conse-
quences if she does not cat it, applies
herself to its mastication after a fashion,
and succeeds, perhaps, in disposing of a
part of it, thereby trusting to save her
reputation from the stigma of attempted
suicide by starvation. In short time
after the brief episode of dinner is over,
soma attendant l,n,,nr+c to tbo mo Lrnn
that Miss So-and-S refuses to eat; or,
if not this, the matron perhaps comes to
inquire of the attendants if certain slls-
pccted patients maintained an appetite
or not so that often one hears rcsound-
ing through the long galleries, or up and
down the staircases leading from them,
the question, "Gills, did Miss eat
her dinner?" or, Chow much did Mrs.
- eat to-day ?" "Thcn she must be
fed, " is the quick reply to the atten-
dant's report. The doctor is sent for,
the patient led off and placed by the
matron in large restraint-chair, which
looks like chair Of war, so gigantic is
it in its build and formation. In this
the patient is held, or sometimes strap
ped, while the doctor, matron, and at
tendant proceed to give her her dinner,
as they choose to call it. The matron
takes from her pocket stout wooden
wedge, which she thrusts into the
patients mouth before she has even re-
fused to open it in the natural way.
With the mouth pried open wide by
means of this instrument. the doctor is
prepared to thrust a cold tube down the
patients throat, while a bowl of broth
or some compound is served to the pa
tent. Then the lady is conducted back
to the gallery, and resumes her place
and occupation or conversation among
her companions in bondage. But what
sense of degradation comes over her
mind, in rejecting upon the treatment
to which she has been subjected.