The Worthington advance., 1878-12-12
,NAD-HOUSE HORRORS.

NAD-H0UsE HORRORS.
Incarceration of Sane Persons in
English Asylums. "<-~ /
ron the Pail Mall Gazette. a-s IL
Stories as to sane persons being confined
in mad.houses are apt to be received with too
much credulity by foolish people, and to be
secuted in too oft-hand manner by intelli-
gent ones. The truth no doubt, lies halfway:
ind If it be not absolutely easy to get sane
persons treated as lunatics, neither Is such a
thing impossible. The laws OF almost every
empower asylum proprietors to re.
ceive and detain persons brought TO- them |
by virtue Of q certificate signed by two doc |
tors; although it is provided that the medi. |
cal men shall examine the patient separately |
within twenty -four hours before he or she is |
shut up, such safeguard would obviously be |
insufficient, even II every doctor all the world !
over were infallible and unimpeachably hon.
est. The best safeguard against abuse of the |
Mnacy laws is the publicity which nowadays |
can SO easily be given to acts OF oppression.
under which even this protection is worth
little. The French papers are now making
an outcry over two instances of sequestration
which deserve noting, because the Two victims
may be regarded as good types Of the sort of
sane persons who are most liable to be dealt
with as lunatics. The one was young man
of property, who, after squandering good deal
OF money, wanted to crown his extravagances
by marrying a woman of low character. His
relatives finding it impossible to make Lin
hear reason, appealed to the family
doctor US to whether the young man
WAS not afflicted with the "perversion of the
moral faculties much representing the early
nf 1cic Won
decided that it was so. He signed certi6-
cate, it. was countersigned, and the young
man was forthwith clapped into a maison de
scnte, whence he was soon released, owing to
the vigorous exertions OF his intended bride.
The second case was that of an old savant of
about chemical experiments, and lived a soil
tary life in company with a hOlsekeeper.
Some nephews and nicces, hearing that the
old gentleman had amassed god deal of
money, became anxious as to the use he was
making of it, and paid him visit with the
presumed object ofascertaining of how his will
would be worded. The story is that the re.
plies being unsatisfactory, it was decided
that the uncle would be all the better for
medical treatment; and here again the family
doctor Was called in. The savant's house
keeper, however, proved too much for the
nephews and neices, and after some battling
with asylum proprietors, who maintained that
| be dangerous If released, the interference of
some newspapers got the patient restored to
freedom. Now, even if in these cases the doc
tor gave certificates too easily, that does not
prove that either Of them acted with inten-
tional dishonesty. On the contrary, in the
| doctors have been shown to have signed GER
| tihcates with perfect good faith. A party
OF respectable persons call upon a physician
and say: "Herc is our uncle, who is in his do.
| tagc, and making ducks and brakes o: his mon
| ey. He lives with G designing woman, who
denies us access to him, and exercises such
| complete authority over him that he cannot
| even see that she is robbing him and hurry
lug him to an early grace, in the hopes Of be-
| coming his heiress. We think il would be
better for our uncle if he were put in some
nice quiet house where his health would be
properly cared for.'' A family doctor need
not be foolish man or mercenary one to
think that it would indeed be better for arnold
gentleman to be rescued from the clutches Of
vulgar harpy; and he will be the more dis
posed to believe this if, upon paying visit to
| the SUSPECTED lunatic, lie is received with
splenetic outburst. 1t is, anyhow, very diff
cult for physian to determine in one short
visit whether man who talks nationally has
some mental twist which renders him incapa-
BILE of administering his own affairs. He is
generally obliged to take for granted most OF
what the suspccted lunatic's relatives say on
this subject; and he reflects that If any mis-.
take is made the asylum physicians will easily
liberty, and that meanwhile the latter will be
none the worse for a little treatment. But
both these modes of reasoning are fallacious
for, ip the first place, a sane man always sui
ftrs good deal from unjust confinement
among ma1men; and, in the next, it is by nc
means easy for a man recognized as sane te
get released from house where he is incar
cerated under certificate.
Once man gets into an asylum he finds
himself confronted by an absurd pr0vis(
which has been inserted in the lunacy law;
of almost all countries, and which requires
that lunatic shall only be released at the re
quest OF the friends or relativvs who confined
linn. The practical effect of this is to remove
all responsibility from the shoulders Of asylum
prOpretOrS. who may be terroriZed by un
scrupulous relatives into OBTAINING a MAJ
} rlong after they have begun to suspect tina
there is nothing the matter with him. For i
these asylum people eviuce desire to dis
charge patient the relatives have only il
effect to say this: ''Do as you please, but
mischief comes OF your action we shall hol'
YOU responsible. We now warn you agail
that our relative has been guilty Of innumer
| able mad acts, (here the antecedents of d pa
tient can be blacke1ed to any extent), and W
know that if he be set free our lives will b
, endangered by his desire for revenge Jus
wait awhile, aud you will see your patien
r have Gil outbreak which will convince yo
that your present favorable opinion OF hr
was too hasty." What is All asylum doctor t
say in answer to such a serious speech? If h
were to release patient who soon afterwar
! committed crime under the impulse of vel
e tigo, his responsibility would be very heav!
j.. AS it really takes q twelye.month to detel
, mine wllesher man is or is not subject
1 certain Of the subtler forms Of epilepsy, an
s opposition to an alleged lunatic's release a
;, most invariably leads to his being detaiue
for this this oh time s,nns which tho ntsec ofe df
man of irritable mood. 1t may be urged th:
! mad houses are periodically inspected; b.
this really does little toward assisting wrongl
0 alleged lunatics; for, if a doctor says to I'll
y inspector that patient who looks rational
= = only in "lucid interval" and will have ''or
e can not refuse to believe him. Besides, it
= seldom that unjustly- men can stat
r their case with the GOODNESS and candt
= requisite to impress belief in their sanity Q
i those who hear them. Abuse in the workin
; of the lunacy laws will probably never
e reduced to minimum until it is enacted ths
!. private asylums shall not be used as places
y perpetual detention for the insane. If
y person be recognized as hopelessly dangeror
Q to society he should be confined in stat
4 asylumlnot always gratuitously) managed b
}, salaried officials having no pecuniary interc
n in having him shutup Private asylums migf
!. still be maintained, but solely as curati,
L establishments-priv hospitals, SO to say
and a patient should not be suffered TO linge
in one beyond given time uni IS by his ow
consent freely given in a lucid moment. It
always to private mad-houses that wrongl,
accused lunaties are taken; but the owners ,
such places would no longer have any induc
ment to accept doubtful cases if they kne
that after while their patients would
taken from them and put into the hands
responsible physicians. This would be givin
lunatics court of appeal. as it were.