The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-11-06

| oLnef celebrities,
AT our dinner there was no learned
or literary talk, but Dickens readiness
\ and fund of anecdote were always at
hand to fill any gap in the conversation.
/ Mr.. Rogers was mirthful, or, rather,
showed a quaint quiet, piquant humor."
Upon the professional side of his long
and distinguished career, DR. Earle has
/ in Mr. Sanborn an intelligent and SYM
pathetic biographer, for the latter was
formerly chairman of the board OF
state charities of Massachusetts and in
spector of charities, in which capacity
| he became acquainted with most of the
! experts in insanity and the asylums for
! the insane in this country. Mr.. Sanborn
! outlines the history of the treatment OF
insanity in this country prior to the
| period of DR.. Earle's professional ac-
/ tiVlty. A change for the better had come
since the days when demoniac possess
ion was believed in, although DR.. Rush,
the first expert in insanity of the early
! decades of this, century still employed
4 cold water, chains and the whip accom-
panied by profuse bleeding, and recon-
| mended the strait Wastcoat or the
1 'tranquillizing chair" privation of food,
/ pouring cold water into the coatsleeves
4 and, lastly the showerbath for fifteen
\ or 20 minutes This was moral treat
ment supplemental to bleeding. In case q
these ''modes of punishment" fail. lit
! VIII be proper to resort to the fear OF
death. BY proper application of these y
mild and terrifying modes of punish
ment, chains will seldom and the whip,e
never be required to govern mad peo-
! pie, advised DR.. Bush. This was the
/ height of the medical profession in 1879.
1 1t was the peculiar merit of DR.. q
! Earle-in some respects a good fortune
4 rather than a merit-that he began his
special career with a far more thorough
outilt OF experience than most of his
contemporaries, and never neglected the
means of keeping himself in line with
the thought and experience of countries
mat preceded ours in the improved care
| OF their insane" says his bographer.
1 When few Americans had the oppor-
tunlty, and perhaps none the inclina-
tlon, to examine the care of the insane
4 IN Europe, he explored it and that
twice-in his first residence abroad and
again In his tour of discovery among
! the German asylums"
1aYlng seen the funeral of william
" and the coronation of Victoria, DIR.
earle crossed from England to study
/ the treatment of the insane in the great
asylums of the continent. At Bicetre.
near Paris he found the douohe used
Tor purposes of mental and moral dis
ciplne
The scene of this treatment contained
about dozen bath tubs, over each of
! winch was douche-pipe with a ca
n.
In two tubs we saw patients each kept
! fron leaving the tub by board fitted
i TO his neck where he sat, as a man
stands in the pillory. One was a robust
/ man, subject to varying hallucinations,
who now thought himself the husband
/ OF the widowed Duchess of Berri, and
1 had been permitted the day before to
have writing materials on condition
4 that he would not write such vagaries
as that he was faVorite of the exiled
| Bourbons and of Louis Philippe He
had written however, his usual absurd
tiles about the Duke of Bordeaux,
/ Charles X. etc. DR.. Leuret, with this
letter in his hand. reminded the patient
of his promise, read him the nonsense
4 he had written, and asked him if he still
| believed that. Qu monsieur Give
him the douche, said DR.. Leuret, to the
\ attendant, who at once turned the cock !
and discharged the stream on the made
mans head He screamed and
writhed, and begged to have it stopped.
1t was checked; and he was asked, DO
you still believe you are the intimate
friend of Charles X.?'f / think / do
Let him have the .douche,' He again
! doundered, shouted and begged for
mercy. Well, you are the chum Of
Charles X. and the Duke of Bordeaux
| II presume So Give him the
I douche once more. In this way, some
times with argument and sometimes
{. with the cold stream, the doctor la
bored for half an hour to break up his
fantastic notions At last the patient
gave in, and his tomentor gave him a
lesson to be learned for the next day.
Turning to the other man in his tub,
Dr. Leuret said he had yesterday
refused to do a task assigned to him,
! leaving the work untouched, He then
asked the man why he had neglected
to work TO tell the truth, monsieur,
did not feel any special desire to
work This was said with a jocose leer
which almost made us laugh Well,
will you work hereafter when you are
| told?' Rejecting an instant, with the
same comic air, he said, Parole dhon-
neur, ! will not work, Give him the
douche,' said DIR. L. The effect of the
stream was now instantaneous. Like
1 a child who is whipped, he cried 1 will
/ wiz The douche was then stopped,
and orders given that he should do the
task before night.
In Constantinople things WIRE even
/ worse DR. Earle saw an insane pa
tient fastened by the neck with a
chain six feet long, itself made fast
through an unglazed window to the ex-
! ternal wall Two other patients were
in the same room, chained in the same
| manner Indeed. of the forty or fifty
patients found there, but one was un-
/ chained. The length of the chains was
| so graduated as just to allow he In
mate to lie down on rude bed OF
boards and blankets. The unclaimed
man was secluded in room, having
several times broken his chain. He had
been confined there fifteen years. and
was chronic maniac, raving and
noisy. but not probably homlcldal were
he properly treated. l..5 a
This was in 1893. Three years later
| Dr. Earle made a second and more ex-
| tended tour of the European asylum
! hospitals, inspecting eight in Great
Britain. five in Belgium. six in
France seven in Prussian Ger
| manq. six in other German
states. two in Austria, and one in the
J imperial free city of Frankfort BY
| that time conditions had become some
what amelorated, and more humane
measures were beginning to supersede
the old brutalities and follies. Long
before his death, Or. Earle had the 4
qualification of seeing his theories
| adopted into the practice of every
| large institution of the kind in Europe
and America.
| DR.. Earle won some local applause
| as a poet and a contributor to the mag
| azines of that early day, the knicker-
| booker of New York and the venture
which that brilliant, erratic genius, Ed
| gar Allen Poe was then first making
| in philadelphia. To Poe DIR. Earle sent
poem which was pronounced beau
tiful' by the editor, and which was
| to appear in the first-issue of The Penn
| Magazine. In addition, Poe asked the.
assistance of DIR. Earle in obtaining
subscribers Eventually, however. Poe
took the editorship of Grahams Mag
azine, and nothing remained to the doc
| tor but a letter from Poe, full of COM
pliments and promises, and written In