664 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



land attached to the homestead. The discipline maintained was 

 of the least irksome kind, the men being allowed as much as pos- 

 sible to go their own way, so long as they obeyed the doctor's 

 orders. Steady work and regular hours were, however, insisted 

 upon, and the patients were required to pass the greater part of 

 their time in the open air. They were supplied with light, nour- 

 ishing food, and a moderate quantity of tea and coffee. No in- 

 toxicants were allowed to be brought to the farm, and only a lim- 

 ited amount of tobacco. The men were carefully guarded from 

 everything that could excite or irritate them; and, at the same 

 time, infinite trouble was taken to render their lives as bright and 

 cheerful as possible. The beneficial effects of this regime were 

 soon apparent. The physical and mental condition of the pa- 

 tients improved rapidly, and the attacks to which they were lia- 

 ble became less frequent and less severe. The fact of all around 

 them being subject to the same misfortune as themselves, seemed 

 to deprive that misfortune of half its terrors; a fit became 

 merely an unimportant episode in life when it no longer rendered 

 him whom it befell a pariah among his fellows. 



The fame of the Labor Home, and of the good work being 

 done there, soon spread through North Germany, and applications 

 for admission arrived from all parts. By 1870 the success of the 

 undertaking was so marked that the committee of management 

 felt justified in reorganizing it on a much more extensive scale. 

 An appeal for funds having been liberally responded to, a small 

 estate adjoining the old homestead was bought, and on it a build- 

 ing was erected large enough to receive one hundred and eighty 

 patients. The new home was placed under the care of the West- 

 phalian Brotherhood, an order of laymen who devote themselves 

 entirely to practical philanthropic work. So far the institution 

 had been reserved entirely for men; it was now, however, re- 

 solved to admit both women and children. The new departure 

 was not an unqualified success. Female epileptics are, oddly 

 enough, much more difficult to manage than male : they are more 

 passionate and less tractable ; they seem, too, less able to grasp 

 the fact that rules must be obeyed. Their somewhat flighty ways 

 made them a disturbing element in Bethel ; and it soon became 

 evident that they must not be allowed to remain there in the 

 same building as the men. Difficulties also arose in connection 

 with the children, owing to the impossibility of keeping them 

 apart from the older patients, some of whom were by no means 

 desirable companions for them. A brief experience showed, too, 

 that many disadvantages result from clubbing together in the 

 same house a large number of patients of different ranks in life 

 and in different stages of their common disease. The patients are 

 required to contribute to the expenses of the Home according to 



