Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-11-17
The Criminal Insane.


The following editorial from the Boston
Advertiser is TO the point and is commended
to the careful consideration of the legisla-
ture "Numbers Of Massachusetts, citizens,
If put on oath, would confess that they had
not scanned the recent message of Governor
Farnhsm of Vermont; many would &C.
knowledge that they wetDignorant Of the
existence of any such paper; but all who
allot few moments day 30 considering
state affairs, and those who do not, will hear
with surprise Of a fact noted in the COVER
nor's address, that in Vermont
convicts who have become insane are kept
with the ordinary insane. That is TO say,
IL farmer in limited circumstances chances
to be overtaken by insanity, he may be forced
10 meet on level in the state asylum the
man who has robbed him, and so induced
the deranged condition, in case Of the not
impossible coincidence Of mental collapse
of which the convict is victim. One who
is not able to pay for private room and at
tendant is assigned to the common wards,
and there encounters the very individual
whose depredations have wrecked the re-
spectacle patients understanding. When
we remember that very considerable per
centage of the inmates of an asylum are
afflicted partially, having deusion touch
ing certain point, for example, and are ra-
tional in all other regards, it is seen that
this imperfect regulation whereby moral dis.
tinctions are obliterated is deserving Of Sc.
we're apprehension. The governor calls on
the state to put an end to such a state Of
things forthwith. In the good time coming
not only will such circumstance as the non
separation of these different classes Of in
sane be unheard of, but the legislators and
others concerned will take care that the re-
treats for those mentally diseased are multi
piled. The inmate who is convalescent will
not have before him the visions of hundreds
who are suffering from the several stages Of
the disorder, or be conscious of their pres.
ence within walls which touch those which
enclose his temporary abode. In place Of
large structures, filled to repletion with the
pitiable company who have departed from
the life Of the sane and responsible, the
states will provide for limited population
Of these sufferers at each asylum, every
county may have its own institution, anc
the depressing, overshadowing presence Of
hundreds of the stricken will no longer hin
der recovery. tribes light as air weigh with
the morbid minds of those mentally disor
dered. And this is no triAe. The advance
in mental science is teaching us that insanity
is no far off calamity, which descends now
and then upon pre.ordained victims, whose
heritage or habits consgn them to the sac
lot of those whose minds are clouded. The
line between sanity and insanity is so deli
cate and variable that the finest judgment
of the expert is often at fault. Multitude,
sooner or later enter the border land Of in
sanity, all unconscious of it, and return t.
their ordinary living, and would be shocked
beyond measure were they to be told how
small a matter might have kindled the fires
of lunacy. 1t is no foreign subject, but
nearer than we may imagine to our OWL
lives, and it behooves every citizen, mo-
knowing the things that may befall him O.
his kindred, to interest himself in ever,
step toward more humane and rationa
treatment Of the insane, and to join in rep
ROTATING all reminders of unenlightenet
times-of which the Vermont provision
now to be repealed is lamentable example.