A visit to thirteen asylums for the insane in Europe : to which are added a brief notice of similar institutions in transatlantic countries and in the United States, and an essay on the causes, duration, termination and moral treatment of insanity, with copious statistics / by Pliny Earle.

  • Pliny Earle
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A visit to thirteen asylums for the insane in Europe : to which are added a brief notice of similar institutions in transatlantic countries and in the United States, and an essay on the causes, duration, termination and moral treatment of insanity, with copious statistics / by Pliny Earle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    is the case with hedsteads of the ordinary kind. Adjacent to the building, and partially enclosed by it, are three courts, or yards, for the use of the patients. These are not large, but they are well cultivated. One of them is planted with orange trees, which are large, and, when I was there, were in full bearing. Another of the courts is used as a kitchen-garden. It is well planted with a variety of vegetables, the labour re- quired in its cultivation being performed by the patients. The regimen, which has been recently improved, is as follows:— Breakfast; coffee and bread; dinner', which is eaten at mid- day, soup, meat and fruit*; supper, soup and fruit. The number of patients in February, 1839, was 90, of whom 40 were men and 50 women. There are, at all times, more female than male patients. The superintendent informed me that he believes the proportionate number of the former to the latter to be as 3 to 2. The same ratio, agreeably to his opinion, is equally applicable to all the cases of insanity in the two islands. A very large proportion of the patients perform some manual labour. The principal employments are gardening, sewing, knitting, spinning, and domestic affairs. Thus far, however, there has not been sufficient employment to keep the patients so constantly occupied as might be best for their own content- ment, or most beneficial in promoting a cure. Amusements have not, hitherto, been introduced; and the same remark is equally applicable to reading and writing. When punishment is necessary, close confinement is the principal resource. For this purpose there are several small cells, supplied with no furniture, having a grating to the doors, and, for the admission of light, a small aperture in the outside wall, so high as to be inaccessible to the patient. The principles of reform began to enter this institution in the year 1812. The use of chains, those implements of con- finement and of torture, fit only for criminals and wild beasts, was then entirely abolished. Whenever bodily restraint is necessary, the camisole or strait-jacket is called in requisi- tion. The pattern of this garment of coercion, used in this Asylum, is, in my opinion, an improvement upon all others
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