Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1876-05-06
THE LUNATIC BOY.
The Uufsrlanase Insane In eur Hespltals..
An BavcstisRtinG Csmnsitice Wanted.

The testimony before the committe
on expenditures, OF the United State
House, A. to tho management Of tn
government hospital for the insane, q
Washington. was certainly painful
enough. The institution evidently
ought to be overhauled. But we wisl
some committee could examine variouI
rural hospitals for the insane through
ont the country, and especially the in
sane wards OF the county poorhouses
Such treatment as tho poor crazed boy
received in Washington is mild and hui.
mai1e compared with that dealt to luna
tids ia these places in every State Of tht
Union. Such committee would dis
cover in these "dark places Of the
earth " lunatic women, often those who
had seen better days, shut up in DARK
cells or cages, without clothing, cold,
often hungry, devoured by vermin, bo.
smeared by filth, chained, or, il loose,
associating with vsgsbonds, paupers
and drunkards, and frequently de-
bauched and ruined by them. The visi-
tors of the insane wards in the poor
houses OF the United States know that
there is appearing in them what might
be called new and horrible human va
riety-a race, the offspring of the luna-
tic and the drunkard, Of the crazed
pauper and the vicious vagrant. In
these "asylums " men are known who
have been in chains and cages for years,
some SO confined as to be deformed for
life: some SCARED and marked by fet-
ters and whips, without clothing, and
treated during these long years worse
than the brutes. Our readers have only
to refer to the reports of such associa-
tons as the New York prison associa.
tion, the New York and Pennsylvania
State boards Of charity, or the reports
from every State Of those experts and
philanthropists who have visited and
studied our county almshouses where
the insane have been cared for, to con-
vince themselves that such facts ss have
been uncovered at Washington are COM
mon in every State of the Union.
The truth is that the condition Of the
insane poor in the United States is dis
grace to our humanity and civilization.
The wonder is that it has continued as it
has so long. Not year has passed for
fifty years in which reports of experts
have not exposed these abuses. Such
philanthropists as Miss Dix, DR.. Willard
and others have spent their lives in seek
ing to reform them. Our own State
board of charities, under DR.. Hoyt, have
struggled necessarily with them. And
It is only within few years that in
and Pennsylvania few
over stupidity and barbarism
began to crown the long contest. In the
West and South, and large part Of the
Middle States, the condition Of the in
'ane, where they have no money, is still
to our civilization and
Christianity. t.. ....l..'...s. ,... -
II will be said that this occurrence in
Washington is dtfrerent from what hap
,ens in county poorhouses, in that the
Washington asylum receives pay patients.
But it will be found that the manage
nent of many asylums in the country
for patients of means, is d g.
Traced by the old punishment and re-
traint system. In England, the old
,arbaric methods of handling the insane
lave been given up. "Non- restraint
9 the rule. The vigorous exertions of
be commissions of lunacy throughout
he kingdom have cleansed the 8" dark
places Of cruelty of their denominations.
\ new and violent patient is seldom con-
ined, or at most with the can,isole or
hirt, but is placed between two attend
nts, or is put in padded room, where
10 cannot injure himself.
Chains and blows, cages and cells,
lunger and cold. are given up as means
# curing lunacy. The lunatic is con-
idered patient under peculiar dis
ase, who can be broken of bad habits
" kind and wise treatment, even as a
hid is. No asylum in this country has
arried out the non-restraint principles
o far as the best English asylums; but
THAT has been accomplished by singu-
arly mild and humane treatment at the
Willard asylum of New York State of
he widest and most incurable cases
rom the country poorhouses, shows
THAT can be done by humanity and
cience combined. Such treatment as
hat of the poor boy in the Washington
sylum, which might occur in many
theirs, ought to be as much thing of
he past as the pillory, or whipping. or
ar cropping of our colonial days. And
ct many reputable asylum resorts to
!. It would be happy result OF this
ruelty if Congress could appoint com
lission of lunacy which might help to
eform such abuses throughout all the
tates, until every lunatic in the coun-
" was treated-as he should be-as an
nfortunate and diseased human being.
-Ne,0 York Times.