Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-07-18
ATROCIOUs TREATMENT OF LUNA
TICS,

An investigation into the m ansgementc Ct
the Vermont Insane Asylum at Brattle5oro,
has developed most deplorable state of af-
fairs. This investigation was made by q
committee appointed by the Legislature.
The committee states that the Asylum,
which is controlled by a private corpora
ton, was greatly oVercrowded, four hun
dred and eighty-tiye patients being packed
in space intended to accommodate but
three hundred al the most. Ssventy-five CT
these uuforSunates were found thrust away
in subterranean dungeons, dark, damp, foul
and nervsded by uncomfortable stencil
es. Some were confned in apart
ments nine feet by four in siza, with
air snd ventilation only through
augur holes bored in the doors. At the
same time the most inhumsn punishment s
we're inflicted upon the patients. Among
them was the punishment of the bath, in
which TIE patient, securely bound, is placed
in bathing tub, and a continuous stream
of cold water allowed to fall upon his head.
This torture was one Of the most excrutia,
ting known in the dark ages, resulting usu-
ally in either insanity or death. It seems
almost incredible that such acts should have
been perpetrated in State institution in q
State of the American Union, and upon
men and women suffering under the most
terrible providential inflictien. But such is
the report of commit ee chosen
by the Legislature, after a full in
vestigation Of the whole subject. This
investigation was ordered by the Legislature
on account of some serious and apparently
weli-supported charges made last fell. The
most noteworthy case was that orthe Rev.
Peter Shaw, an aged Presbyterian clergy
man who was put into the asylum in 1867
by the Vaccinations Of a son-in.law. His
sanity was soon established, and bis dis
charge ordered by the courts. In Vermont
they have law, enacted in 1866, by which
the certificate of single physician is suf-
fcient to procure the confinement of per-
son in an asylum. The committee has req
son to be ieVe that this law has been used
through the ager cy of bribed physicians, to
secure the confinement of persons entire
ly SAGE, whom il was for the interest of
others to get out Of the way. In
these days CT scandals about the man.
sgemento Of lunatic asylums, and of charges
that sane persons are sometimes fmmured
and detained from improper motives, il
would seem that we might borrow q sugges-
ton from Belgium. The government has
recently ordered that in each Of these insti-
tutions letter-boxes shall be put up, which
shall be kept locked, SO that no one attached
to the asylum can gain admission. In these
boxes the inmates are to be permitted to
deposit any complaints that they have to
make against the officers of the institution.
A civil officer of the district visits the asylum
onca week and examines these commuri-
cations. Charges that seem to be we'll
founded are investigated, and if an inmate
cl=ims to be sane, his cSse is examined by
medical authority. The plan is
a simple one, and there is reason to believe
that it might prove very eficacious. But
the complaints must be rather an incongru-
Gus collection of literature.