THE STORY OF A COLONY FOR EPILEPTICS. 663 

 THE STORY OF A COLONY FOR EPILEPTICS. 



By EDITH SELLERS. 



SOME twenty-seven years ago, a number of gentlemen inter- 

 ested in social and philanthropic questions met together at 

 Bielefeld, in Westphalia, to consider what could be done to alle- 

 viate the sufferings of epileptic patients, and prevent their being 

 a burden to themselves and to their fellows. Epilepsy was at that 

 time alarmingly prevalent in North Germany, no less than one 

 tenth per cent of the population being afflicted with the disease. 

 There was hardly a village but had its epileptics, men, women, 

 and children, who passed their days just waiting for the coming 

 of those awful paroxysms, which rendered them at once the ter- 

 ror and the derision of their neighbors. Many of these people were 

 full of life and energy, willing, nay, eager to work, for, as they 

 well knew, in steady work lay their one chance of warding off 

 the doom that threatened them. Every day epileptics sit with 

 folded hands brings them the nearer to hopeless idiocy. It is 

 this that renders their fate so infinitely pathetic. Work they 

 must, unless they are to become insane ; and there is no work for 

 them to do ! Masters do not care to run the risk of employing men 

 who, at any moment, may be stricken helpless. Thus thousands 

 are compelled to pass their days in enforced idleness, an idleness 

 fraught with disaster to themselves, and with the loss of much 

 good service to the community. It was to put an end to this 

 state of things, so far at least as Westphalia was concerned, that 

 the Bielefeld committee began its work. The problem its mem- 

 bers had to face was how to arrange a condition of life under 

 which the labor of epileptic patients might be rendered economic- 

 ally productive. This they set to work to solve in an eminently 

 practical fashion, by opening a labor home for epileptics. This 

 home, Bethel as it is called, has now developed into one of the 

 most important labor colonies in Europe. What gives a special 

 interest at present to Bethel is that a committee has just been 

 formed for the purpose of establishing a similar institution in 

 England. 



Bethel was started in a very humble way. A small farm was 

 bought at Sparenberg, near Bielefeld, with money raised by vol- 

 untary subscriptions, and there the first patients were installed. 

 A committee of management was appointed to watch over the 

 working of the Home, which was placed under the direction of 

 Herr Unsold, a kindly, energetic man, a practical farmer, too, as 

 well as a skillful organizer. There were at first only four pa- 

 tients, but before many weeks had passed the house was full. 

 The inmates all lived together as one family, and cultivated the 



