Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1873-07-19
The Vermont Insane Asylum--HOw
the Patients are Treated.

pointed by the last Legislature oil thls
State to make an investigation of the
affairs of the Vermont Asylum for the
insane, ut Brattleboro, makes some |
startling revelations. 1t will be I'M
derstooG that the Asylum is State
institution, for which, an appropria-
ion of the money of the State is
made, but that it is managed and
controlled by private corporation, in
company with commissioners appoint
ed by the State. Three hundred pa
tients was the largest number which
the building was designed to accom-
modate, but at the time Of the Com
missioners' visit there were 4S5 in
mates. Seventy-tive are confined in
underground apartments, from which
air and light are excluded, and which,
from these causes, and because Of
dampness and various other causes,
among which are the offensive odors
and entire lack of ventilation and the
lack rof room. Many of the apart
ments being but 9X4 feet in size, are
wholly unfit for occupancy by human
beings. The Committee remark that
the odors prevailing these apartments
are of the most unhealthy kind and
that the only means Of ventilation is
by anger holes in the doors, and in
their opinion 20 person shouli hereafter
occupy those cooms. 1t also appears
before the Committee, ana they report
the fact, that the most inhuman pun
ishments are ificted on the inmates by
order Of the Superintend ent, of which
the following is reported as sample
with the comments of the committee:
1.-THE patient for some offence, or
supposed offence, is taken into the
bath room, tied, laid upon his back in
the bath tub, and the faucet turned,
allowing a stream of cold water to run
upon the head and face while the body
is immersed in tepid water, and is so
kept until relieved by the attendant.
While we are satisfied that restraints
are necessary to prevent the deliTious
from injuring themselves and others,
we cannot find language strong enough
to express our Indignation that pun
ishment Of any kind as such should be
resorted to by the officers or employees
of said Asylum, or be in any manner
inflicted upon these unfortunate and
irresponsible Beings and would recon-
mend the passage by the next Legis-
lature of some law with severe penal
ties attached, that these abuses may
be corrected
The enormity of the punishment is
better understood when we remember
that the steady flow of cold water upon
the head is of itself sufficient to cause
insanity; and the most inhuman inge-
nuity could hardly devise anything
better calculated to heighten the very
malady under which the unfortunate
inmates labor.
The manner Of admitting inmates
is most severely commented upon.
1t appearing that there have been
persons confined in the Asylum who
were not insane'bu whose confinement
was procured by chicanery, and that
these persons have been obliged to
endure the infection of these inhuman
outrages while entirely powerless to
help themselves, and without tue
means of having the question of their
proper detention or their mental con-
dition inquired into, their complaints
and prayers for investigation having
been unheeded and if ever heard
treated as the rawlings Of a disordered
mind. That this wrong might be ac-
complished it is but necessary to
know that the certificate of single
physician is sufficient authority to
justify the incarceration of any person
in this vile hole, and from this certifi
cate there is no appeal by the unhap-
Ply victim, and that any effort he may
make towards an investigation of his
case, while easily foiled by the at
PENDANTS and Superintendent of the
institution, but brings upon the I'm.
fortunate the wrath of these officers
and subjects him to the ifiction of het
before mentioned punishment, which
the Superintendent may order at will
OF the keepers infict without the or
der Or knowledge of the Superintcnd.
ent.
These terrible facts sound more
like the revelations of the horrors OF
the inquisitorial rack, or the fancy
wrought picture Of the pen of fiction,
than like sober statements of rea
truths Of daily practice in staid New
England life; but OF the truth of the
statments there appears to be no room