SCHOOLS FOR THE INSANE. 637 



The school is divided into three sections advanced, interme- 

 diate, and primary. The advanced course consists of geography 

 and historical reading, and is in charge of one of the patients. In 

 the intermediate division, arithmetic as far as percentage, reading, 

 geography, and grammar are taught ; it is in charge of two other 

 patients. The primary division, contrary to the general rule, is 

 in charge of the schoolmistress, and the pupils are taught to 

 read, spell, write numbers, and do easy sums. No two in this di- 

 vision are equally advanced, and its successful working requires 

 a large amount of tact and exhaustless patience. At first this 

 department was in charge of the patients, but experience has 

 shown that the pupils get along much better under the more ex- 

 perienced instruction of the head of the school. The pupils range 

 in age from fourteen to seventy-seven. Preference, however, is 

 given to the younger ones who desire to attend, more than half 

 being under forty, nearly one third under thirty, and about one 

 eighth under twenty years of age. They suffer from the various 

 forms of mental trouble, but here again preference is given to 

 those who have melancholia and the more acute forms of insanity. 

 Chronic cases are not excluded, however, and among those who 

 can receive no benefit save the two hours' daily relief from the 

 monotony of asylum life are two Virgin Marys, one queen of the 

 world, one daughter of ex-President Cleveland who is nearly sev- 

 enty years of age, two who imagine that they have passed from 

 the scenes of earth and dwell among the dead, and one who has 

 the curious delusion that people are constantly walking upon her 

 fingers. As curable cases, and those most likely to recover, are 

 the ones who generally attend the school, the direct curative influ- 

 ences can not be accurately estimated ; but, as might be expected, 

 the most encouraging results are met with in the young and in 

 those whose insanity has been of comparatively short duration. I 

 can recall two cases where the patient could not read or write 

 before becoming insane, but became fairly proficient in both 

 before returning home. Three others also occur to me who ap- 

 peared to be in the depths of dementia, but were, after several 

 days of patient trial, made to feel an interest in a " puzzle map," 

 and each went on uninterruptedly to recovery and home. Another 

 patient is the terror of the ward, in which she stays until ten 

 o'clock in the morning, when she goes quietly to school and re- 

 mains for two hours one of the most interested of them all. After 

 leaving the school she again becomes ugly and irritable, and it is 

 only the fear of being kept away from it that makes her at all con- 

 trollable. Surely these scattered instances show results sufficient 

 to justify the efforts made ; but I am sure that, even where the re- 

 sults are not so marked, the school is at least an important adjunct 

 to employment, games, out-of-door exercise, and amusements. 



