A FREE COLONY OF LUNATICS. 65 



We add a few notes of our own visit to Gheel, which we made on 

 two days in the spring of 1883. "NVe arrived there, by railway, in the 

 same train with a mother who was bringing her idiot son — a lusty 

 youth, twenty years old — to leave him there. We found a town with 

 wide streets, not entirely regular, and poorly paved, with few people 

 out. The houses, two or three stories high, appeared well kept, with 

 glistening window-panes and brightly polished door-knobs. Passing 

 the grand square, near the church, we met a man about sixty years 

 old, walking slowly along, with a baby in his arms which he was try- 

 ing to entertain with a most discordant song. He was a patient, taking 

 care for an hour or two of his host's child. He performed his duty 

 faithfully and diligently, bidding good-morning to such persons as he 

 knew, and exchanging a few words with them. 



A few steps more brought us to the wide, tree-bordered avenue on 

 which the infirmary is situated. The building is a handsome structure 

 of brick and stone. We sought out Dr. Peeters, and after a few mo- 

 ments of conversation were authorized to visit the institution, and then, 

 in company with a guard of section, to inspect the city and some of the 

 houses where insane are entertained. The infirmary was throughout a 

 model of Flemish neatness, with well-scoured floors and flagging, 

 bright kitchens, and abundance of air and light. The sick-wards are 

 in front. We paid a rapid visit to the women's quarter. Some were 

 in the dormitory, some walking in the halls. Among the former, some 

 of the more seriously affected ones were plaintively muttering words 

 that we could not catch, others were grieving over the persecutions of 

 which they imagined themselves the objects ; another, of pleasant 

 appearance, and fluent in conversation, answered all of our questions 

 with suavity. She was delighted to receive our visit ; the only thing 

 about it that troubled her was to see our head some sixty feet above 

 our body, and she could not but be surprised at it. She was well 

 treated, and desired nothing better than her present condition. Thence 

 we went into the garden, where we found two sisters, both hysteric, 

 waiting their transfer to a close asylum. One had a dangerous pro- 

 pensity to homicide, and the other was subject to a depravity of man- 

 ners that made it improper for her to be at large. 



Our first visit, in company with a guard, to the boarding-houses, 

 was at the comfortable dwelling of a well-bred lady, who was enter- 

 taining an Englishman and a Pole. We found the Englishman in his 

 room, a bright and spacious apartment, sitting on a sofa, with his head 

 between his hands. Our efforts to engage him in conversation, even 

 in his own language, were vain. He answered sulkily, and ended by 

 muttering that he was tired of us. Just as we were going out, the 

 other patient came in, returning from a visit to a friend. He was a 

 Polish prince, bearing a great historical name, but suffering from weak- 

 ness of mind and occasional delirious fancies that he was an object of 

 persecution. He was a man of excellent education, with the experi- 



VOL. XXTIII. — 5 



