The suburban citizen., 1902-01-11
VOLUNTARY LuNATlcs.
rersons Who Have Elected to Be Com
fined IN Asylums.

AZ Will prODanly be n Sn0cK TO you
and to many Others" said the SUPER
intendent of a well-known lunatic asy-
lum, "to learn that there are scores,
and even hundreds, of people who
spend their lives within the walls OF
madhouses who are every bit as sane
as you or l, and the remarkable thing
is that many of them could be free TO-
morrow if they would.
"In a certain asylum know there
is to-day a gentlewoman who for more
than twenty years has voluntarily inn
INJURED herself as a lunatic, and for all
the sake of love- When she was
young and beautiful girl-one of the
most charming girls l ever saw in my
life-she was engaged to be married to
a young doctor, who, unhappily, devel-
oped homicidal mania and had to be
confined in the asylum.
Gas his mania was incurable and
there was no prospect OF marrying
him, the devoted girl, who was an orr
phan and an heiress, determined to
share his Imprisonment, and sought ad-
mission to the asylum, where she leads
precisely the same life as the lunatics,
so that she might see and meet him oc-
casionally and brighten his captivity a
little.
"In the same asylum there is an.
other lady who might be at liberty
any day, for she is perfectly sane.
Her reason for entering the asylum
was that she felt an unaccountable
impulse to poison her husband, and
was so Mortified at the possibility that
she insisted on placing herself under
control. Her husband died many years
ago, but she has got so used to her
life in an asylum and shrinks so much
from returning to the world and pos.
sble repetition of her fancied homici-
dal impulse that she elects to spend
the rest Of her days in a madhouse.
Another inmate of the same asylum
is a clergyman, who a few years ago
was widely known for his eloquence
and zeal. Although he was and is
very devout man, he declared that
whenever he was preaching he always
heard the devil prompting him to bias
pheme. No doubt it was a case of un.
strung nerves, but the fear of disgrace
ing himself before his congregation
so preyed on his mind that he deter
mined to give up his ministry and re-
tire from the world and temptation
within the walls of an asylum.
"All this happened many years ago,
but, although the morbid fancy has
hn 90 -,
where he Is, rather than return to a
world where, as he says, he is forgot
ten, and where he might have to face
the old trouble again.
Another asylum patient Gf / c@rYy-'
call him sol is lawyer whorE~aS once
of some eminence in hj& nrofession
He had an only Whom he almost
ldolized' and When the boy developed
symptoms 3Tinsanity and it was neces-
sary t9SEe6nfine him, the father elected
10 accompany him, and for years he
fas watched over him with a tender
fness that is very touching.
"Of course, in all these cases the
patients are people of means, who can
afford to pay for being asylum inmates.
I'm another case female patient
when she had recovered her sanity, re-
fused to leave the asylum. She had, it
appeared, fallen violently in love with
a handsome male patient, who is as
mad as a hatter,' and, / fear, always
will be, and as he could not accom-
pany her into freedom she preferred
TO stay under the same roof with him.
There are also many sane patients
who, in spite of the stringent laws
that regulate admission, are sent there
by relatives who wish to get them out
of the way. AS you know, before a
| patient can be admitted to an asylum
he must be certified insane by two
medical men unconnected with asy-
lums.
"The medical profession, unfortunate
ly, has its share of black sheep, and
thus it happens that it is quite posi-
bic to procure two doctors who will
| certify that a man is insane even when
he is perhaps more sane than they are
l have known cases where quite a
dozen doctors have been tried before
the necessary certificate has been pro-
cured, and where the potential patient
has been trapped in moments of ex-
citement deliberately brought on by
those who seek to confne him. OF
course this is not done on anything
like the same scale as formerly, but
that it can still be done, and often is
done, give you my word.
Then, again, some Of the men who
successfully plead insanity when
charged with murder are really as sane
as the counsel who defend them, al
though the crime may doubtless have
been committed when in state of eX-
titement amounting to temporary in
{ sanity.
"If there is any plausible ground for
concluding that a man was insane
when he committed the act both judge
and jury are not slow to give the pris-
oner the benefit of any doubt there
may be, and he is committed to an
asylum instead of to the gallows. Many
of these men spend the rest of their