Eighteenth annual report of the managers of the State Lunatic Asylum : transmitted to the Legislature January 16, 1861 / New York State Lunatic Asylum.

  • New York (State). State Lunatic Asylum
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Eighteenth annual report of the managers of the State Lunatic Asylum : transmitted to the Legislature January 16, 1861 / New York State Lunatic Asylum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    received at Leonardsville, and that “if lie was injured at the Asylum it was from want of due attention” in the employment of attendants, tfyey have suggested a doubt which we believe to be unjust and not warranted by the testimony. We beg leave to make an extract from the report of the committee, which (espe¬ cially when taken in connection with their declaration that there was no positive evidence that the injuries of Tarbell were in¬ flicted at the Asylum) is, of itself, sufficient to justify the opinion which we have expressed. The report says: “ The sum of the evidence of the witnesses from Madison county is, that the pa¬ tient had exhibited some symptoms of insanity for two years past; that a few days before coming to the Asylum he became very violent; that his wife was afraid of him, and had him re¬ moved to his mother’s, where it required several men to manage him; that on the day before he was brought to Utica a violent outbreak occurred, in which he held a number of men at bay for a considerable time, tearing a stove to pieces, and throwing the pieces at those endeavoring to secure him. He was finally ar¬ rested by his brother-in-law and others and secured. The degree of violence made use of in effecting this arrest, is somewhat differ¬ ently stated by different witnesses. If the injury was inflicted upon Tarbell before leaving Leonardsville, it must have been on this occasion. Those who arrested him rushed in upon him, and a struggle ensued in which the brother-in-law and Tarbell came into collision, and thence upon a lounge, the latter underneath the former. By some statements the attack is represented as not violent; by others that his brother-in-law drew his cap over his eyes, rushed upon Tarbell, seized him, and thus bore him to the sofa; that Tarbell immediately succumbed and was much exhausted; that the physician who saw him within an hour afterwards expressed his fears that he ivould never speak again. He did, however, re¬ vive, and the morning after the encounter with Clark appeared quite rational, and said he had not been hurt, except a scratch on the finger. The next day Tarbell was taken to Utica, a dis¬ tance of twenty-five miles, in a spring wagon, supporting himself mainly by leaning back upon a friend who accompanied him. Dur¬ ing this time he was in a state of quiet delirium.” We have italicised parts of this extract, to which wo ask par. ticular attention. It thus appears, by the testimony of some of TarbelPs neigh¬ bors and friends, that a few days before going to the Asylum, he
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