The cottage system and Gheel : an asylum tract / by John Sibbald.
- Sibbald, John, 1833-1905.
- Date:
- 1861
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The cottage system and Gheel : an asylum tract / by John Sibbald. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![the statement that these emotions become much less powerful after the sufferer is placed under asylum discipline. During the past year, twenty-five patient^were admitted into the Royal Edinburgh Asylum who had made suicidal attempts, and thirty-seven who were stated to be strongly impelled to attempt it, yet none have made the shghtest attempt since admission, and few have any strongly developed impulse. There are some demented patients vdio might be otherwise suitable for treatment at Gheel, but who exhibit occasional paroxysms of violence. These, on account of their dementia, would require to be very carefully selected, if it was thought desirable to place them under such a regime. The excitement is in some cases of a harmless natm’e; but in others there is a tendency to incendiarism, or other destructive practices, wliich would necessarily render them unfit. Notliing but a knowledge of the peculiarities of each case could guide the selection. In those partially demented cases, whose con- tentment and apparent happiness I alluded to in the account of my visit, there is commonly a gradual degeneracy which would require to be carefully watched, so that they might be removed Avhen necessary to a more suitable lodgment. The supervention of dirty habits should at once be followed by removal. Eor the reasons ah’eady stated, I believe that all dirty patients are unfit for cottage treatment. A most important element in the cm’ative treatment of the insane is the correction of the various depraved or detrimental habits to which they are frequently so prone. Eor much of this, I fear, the system under consideration will be found inadequate. There are two principal grounds for this opinion. One depends on the nature of the relation between each patient and his nourricier. The patient is placed with a cottager as a boarder, and the principle of his treat- ment must be chiefly to keep liim in good humour, as the easiest way of managing and making him useful by his labour. Now there are many habits and many ideas which are cherished by patients, which are not very obnoxious to those with whom they are associated, but which it is not the less necessary to try to remove, in order to promote recovery. These must be very liable in a peasants family to be treated too much on the plan of qideta non movere ; so long as present usefulness or harmlessness is preserved, the promotion of ultimate benefit will be lost sight of. The 'nourricier will encourage his lodger in wliat is most convenient, rather than in what is most beneficial. It has been said by some who are enthusiastic in their admiration of the advantages of Gheel, that in ordinary asylmns the develo])ment of delusions is more likely, from the close intercourse which each patient necessarily maintains with a great number of follow-sufferers, whose fantastic ideas may originate similar conceits](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22342680_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
