Directions for the establishment and government of lunatic asylums / tr. from the French by E. Quincy Sewell.
- Alexandre Jacques François Brière de Boismont
- Date:
- [1840?]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Directions for the establishment and government of lunatic asylums / tr. from the French by E. Quincy Sewell. 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.
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![may be easily recognized by strangers. It may be neutral- ized by chlorine solutions and fumigation, or it may be dissi- pated by free ventilation, frequent whitewashing of the walls, and washing of the bed and bedding. The different apartments and cells should be well heated in winter. Some insane persons experience an extraordinary insensibility to cold, and a remarkable instance of this occurred in the person of the famous Theroigne de Mericourt, Goddess of Reason during the revolution, and afterwards a maniac in the Salpetriere. Every cTay, both in summer and winter, on leaving her cell, she was in the habit of pouring several pails of water over her body, without manifesting other sensations than those of pleasure. But this and similar cases arc only exceptions to the general rule, and in opposition to them, many proofs might be brought forward to show their general susceptibility to changes of temperature. With what eager- ness have we not seen them precipitate themselves towards the fireplaces in winter ! Lunatics, apparently insensible to the rigors of (he season, often experience the effects of being chilled, and are attacked with diarrhoeas, colics and catarrhs. Wagner relates (Ammerkungen zu Pinels eben angefuhr- ter schrifi) that in 1799 three patients in the asylum at Vi- enna were seized with tetanus from exposure to excessive cold. Haslam remarks, that they are peculiarly liable to cold extremities, and adds, that at the Bethlem hospital, London, it is the custom to examine the legs and feet of the patients in the cells every morning and night, and to envelope them in Marine]. The choice and quantity of aliment proper for insane per- sons, is not the least important of the hygienic measures to be adopted. The evil consequences of too small or too abundant a quantity of food are well known. It will suffice here, says the celebrated Pinel, to recall to the recollection of the friends of good order, some melancholy facts connected with this subject, which passed under my own observation—the relation of them cannot fail to excite feelings of pity in the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21032397_0033.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
