The Borderlands of Insanity: And Other Allied Papers

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R. Hardwicke, 1875 - Idiot asylums - 314 pages

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Page 297 - This is the second event of the kind that has happened in this corps within a month. The First Consul directs that it shall be notified in the order of the day of the Guard, that a soldier ought to know how to overcome the grief and melancholy of his passions ; that there is as much true courage in bearing mental affliction manfully as in remaining unmoved under the fire of a battery.
Page 99 - English captain, whose history no one knew, as he had been in chains forty years. He was thought to be one of the most furious among them ; his keepers approached him with caution, as he had in a fit of fury killed one of them on the spot with a blow from his manacles. He was chained more rigorously than any of the others. Pinel entered his cell unattended, and calmly said...
Page 143 - I cannot but think that future progress in the improvement of the treatment of the insane lies in the direction of lessening the sequestration and increasing the liberty of them. Many chronic insane, incurable and harmless, will be allowed to spend the remaining days of their sorrowful pilgrimage in private families, having the comforts of family life, and the priceless blessing of the utmost freedom that is compatible with their proper care.
Page 246 - I have sometimes half believed, although the suspicion is mortifying, that there is only a step between his state who deeply indulges in imaginative meditation, and insanity...
Page 261 - One afternoon in the month of May, feeling himself a little unsettled and not inclined to business, he thought he would take a walk into the city to amuse his mind ; and having strolled into St. Paul's Church-yard, he stopped at the shop-window of Carrington and Bowles, and looked at the pictures, among which was one of the cathedral. He had not been long there before a short grave-looking elderly gentleman, dressed in dark brown clothes...
Page 226 - It was found necessary for her to learn everything again. She even acquired, by new efforts, the art of spelling, reading, writing, and calculating, and gradually became acquainted with the persons and objects around, like a being for the first time brought into the world. In these exercises she made considerable proficiency. But, after a few months, another fit of somnolency invaded her. On rousing from it, she found herself restored to the state she was in before the first paroxysm, but was wholly...
Page 100 - Bicetre, he had no return of his paroxysms, but even rendered himself useful, by exercising a kind of authority over the insane patients whom he ruled in his own fashion. In the course of a few days Pinel released fifty-three maniacs from their chains; among them were men of all conditions and countries, — workmen, merchants, soldiers, lawyers, &c. The result was beyond his hopes ; tranquillity and harmony succeeded to tumult and disorder, and the whole discipline was marked with a regularity and...
Page 100 - In the course of a few days Pinel released fifty-three maniacs from their chains; among them were men of all conditions and countries — workmen, merchants, soldiers, lawyers, &c. The result was beyond his hopes ; tranquillity and harmony succeeded to tumult and disorder, and the whole discipline was marked with a regularity and kindness which had the 'most favourable effect on the insane themselves, rendering even the most furious more tractable.
Page 6 - Such a state as mine," writes a patient, "you are probably unacquainted with, notwithstanding all your experience. I am not conscious of the suspension or decay of any of the powers of my mind. I am as well able as ever I was to attend to my business ; my family suppose me in health, yet the horrors of a madhouse are staring me in the face. I am a martyr to a species of persecution from within, which is becoming intolerable. I am urged to say the most shocking things. Blasphemous and obscene words...
Page 135 - ... on the fire ; or, if a female, busies herself in the ordinary domestic duties of the house. The lunatics, as may be supposed, are not left to the discretionary mercies of the host and hostess. A strict system of supervision prevails, somewhat analogous to that of the lunacy commissioners and visiting justices of England. The entire country is divided into four districts, each having a head guardian and a physician, to whom are entrusted the medical care of every inmate belonging to the section.

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