Report of Commissioners Appointed under a resolve of the Legislature of Massachusetts, to Superintend the Erection of a Lunatic Hospital at Worcester, and to report a system of discipline and government for the same.

  • Massachusetts. Commissioners Appointed to Superintend the Erection of a Lunatic Hospital at Worcester
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of Commissioners Appointed under a resolve of the Legislature of Massachusetts, to Superintend the Erection of a Lunatic Hospital at Worcester, and to report a system of discipline and government for the same. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    24/46 page 14
    rise by constant accumulation to agonies almost boyond the power of mortal sufferance ; if his exiled mind in its devious wanderings ever approach the light by which it was once cheered and directed, it sees every thing unwelcoming, every thing repulsive and hostile, and is driven away into returnless banishment. From the absence of suitable Institutions amongst us, the insane have been visited with a heavier doom than that inflicted upon the voluntary contemners of the law. They have been condemned as no criminal ever was condemned, and have suffered as no criminal ever has suffered. The code by which they have been judged, denounces against them the penalties due only to crime, while it is unmitigated by any of those mer- ciful provisions which in our penal code, attemper jus- tice with humanity. Even when a criminal stands con- victed of perpetrating the most atrocious crime, the benignity of the law accompanies him to the solitude where he is to expiate his offence. He is comfortably clad and warmed and fed at the expense of the State, which inflicts his punishment. He is supplied with the means of moral renovation, and when those proofs of penitence and reformation are given, which it is in his own power to furnish, the laws relent and authorize the remission of his sentence. But though the insane have been made fellow-prisoners with the criminal, they have suffered the absolute privation of every comfort for the body and every solace for the mind. Yet why should a man be treated even as a criminal, who by universal consent, is incapable of crime ? We under- stand what is signified by retributions for guilt, but to speak of retributions for insanity, does violence to everv feeling of humanity and dictate of conscience. Yet
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3