1870.] On Insanity. 185 



there is reason to hope would greatly contribute to sap the sources 

 of pauperism."* 



The rational-education cry is all very well, but, for reasons 

 already given, there may be much doubt whether it will be the 

 panacea for lunatic pauperism. Our difficulty is not, however, at 

 present how to prevent insanity, but how to treat the apparently 

 incurable — those who do not receive benefit from the present asy- 

 lum system — properly and successfully, and without extravagant 

 outlay. When a system is fully developed, any proposition which 

 interferes with it is of course ridiculed. Just as the asylum system 

 was a matter of slow growth, and one full of trouble and mistakes, 

 so all others, more or less antagonistic to it, must commend them- 

 selves to us, whilst they pass through stages of incompleteness, 

 misdirection, and error. If the insane colony of Gheel is mentioned 

 as a reasonable institution, its shortcomings are of course placed 

 prominently before us, but really they are equalled in many Eng- 

 lish asylums, and its statistics prove that the unfortunate patients 

 afflicted with chronic insanity are cured in about the same ratio. 

 They have more liberty, and it is possible for them to wear out 

 then irritability by continuous labour. Certainly they do not cost 

 so much for maintenance as the English demented, who crawl about 

 the yards and grounds of the asylum like flies out of season. But 

 a system of treatment of the chronic insane on the Grheel plan, 

 and without its evident errors, would give the afflicted a better 

 chance than they now have. There are many large asylums with 

 plenty of land around them, and some of the insane work on the 

 land ; but this labour is not universal, and its mercantile value is 

 always considered. If a superintendent turned the whole of his 

 chronic cases out into the fields day after day, and managed to 

 direct the attention of each one to work which was possible, it 

 would not be a more troublesome proceeding than teaching a class 

 of idiots (and this is well done, after a while, with perseverance), 

 and the benefit must be great. If a great village, with proper cot- 

 tages, was founded in each county on land which could be culti- 

 vated without any great loss by skilled labour and by the chronic 

 insane, the success would not be less, so far as curation is concerned, 

 than it now is, and it might be greater. The comforts of the 

 patients would be the same, and the same staff of officials would be 

 necessary. The dreary walls, the awful sameness of surroundings, 

 the close company of fellow-lunatics sadly differing in mental pecu- 

 liarities, would be got rid of, and the restraint would be reduced 

 to its minimum. Doubtless there would be occasional scenes of 

 trouble, excitement, and violence ; but are there not such within the 

 walls of the best-regulated asylums ? Perhaps they might be less 

 frequent under the open canopy of heaven. As a matter of expense, 



* Keport, 1869. 



