It must not be understood that the same mode of operation is practiced
in all cases in sending patients to an insane or lunatic asylum. It
must be understood also that we are speaking of a State institution,
like the one at Utica.
Some patients are supported in that institution solely by the county to
which the patient belongs; others are supported partly by the county
and partly by the friends of the patient, or by the patient himself or
herself, as the case may be; while others, called private patients, are
supported wholly by themselves or by their friends.
When a patient is entered as _private_, it is not necessary to consult
doctors, judges or jurors. Suppose it to be a wife, a husband, or a
child. The patient is taken to the asylum, terms of entrance are fixed
upon with the superintendent, bonds are given or money in advance as
security, and the patient is received. In the most of cases the patient
is not consulted in the matter. In some cases, however, the patient
is consulted, and consents to go; is made to believe that the asylum
is like any other infirmary or hospital, where patients are taken to
be nursed and cared for, and cured if possible. In the most of cases,
perhaps, there is a kind of dread and horror attending a patient taken
to the asylum, and very many go against their will. This opposition is
generally attributed to their insanity, and is too generally received
as evidence that such an one is a fit subject for a lunatic asylum.
Should this dread and fear of going to an asylum be made the criterion
by which to determine the sanity or insanity of the patient, I have no
doubt but more than three-fourths of the people of the State of New
York would be adjudged insane.
Another mode of getting a subject into the asylum—the laws of the State
having fixed this mode—is as follows: Two physicians are consulted,
and if in their judgment the subject is insane, they so represent the
case to the judge of the county, and he issues his order to commit this
subject to the asylum, and the order is obeyed. This mode of operation
covers a vast number of cases, ranging through all the different grades
of what physicians may be pleased to call insanity, from acute mania
down through melancholia and epilepsy to the dull, moping, driveling
state of idiocy, taking, in its sweep, dotage and childishness of old
age.
Here a grand field is opened for operation for designing men and women
and for speculation. If the subject begins to be a care and burden
to the younger portion of the family—if the subject shows some marks
of eccentricity—if the patient discovers marks of dotage in the loss
of memory which causes frequent questions on the same subject, and
especially if a large property lies between the subject and his or her
children or relatives—it is an easy matter, in such cases, and very
convenient, to place such subjects in a place away from excitement and
care, where they will be well used, and nursed as they could not be at
home, and at the same time the family relieved of a great burden. The
matter is talked up; the good of the patient is only held out to view;
the real cause and reasons for this change are concealed. Doctors are
consulted, and by the kind and careful representations of the friends
of the patient, the doctors are easily made to believe that the subject
is no longer fit to manage his or her affairs, and that ease and quiet
would greatly contribute to their comfort—especially if they could be
removed away and out of sight of home and their business—and so they
come to the conclusion that the lunatic asylum would be the appropriate
place for them; and so they all come to the conclusion that it would
be best to try it for awhile at least. But to make all safe, an order
would be best from the judge; then none could complain that oppression
had been practiced.
An order is easily obtained, as the patient perhaps is not to be a
county charge, but supported out of his or her own money. I have in
my mind at this time a number of such cases, with which I have been
acquainted; some of them are now in the asylum; others have died there,
as most if not all of this class will do. And why should they not die
there? They are not placed there to be cured of old age, nor their
state of dotage, nor of a suicidal or revengeful spirit. These were
not charged upon them, for they were harmless as children; they were
placed there for the relief of other minds, and to lessen the cares of
those who owe to them their lives and their tenderest watch-care in
their declining years! Will such friends or relatives be anxious to
know how the old gentleman or lady fares, away from home, locked up as
in a prison, and confined by iron grates and bolts? Do such ones care
whether their victim, who has always had his liberty, be locked into a
cell at night alone, or whether he is locked in with a half dozen of
raving mad men? Will such ones inquire whether he suffers with cold,
or whether his food is suited to his appetite, and such as he has been
used to at his own full board?
Could the beams of these prison houses speak out, and could the stones
cry out of the walls of some of those upper back halls in the asylum
at Utica, the revelations of the woes and sufferings of humanity would
so shock and astonish the outward world, that instead of classing this
institution with the _humane_ and _benevolent_ institutions of the
country, it would be classed with those ancient Bastilles which have
furnished a history of the most cruel and bloody tragedies ever acted
under the sun!
I never conceived or realized, until on my way to Utica under keepers,
on what a slender thread hangs the liberty of the people of the State
of New York. Only the day before, I was feeling that the spell that
had lain upon me for more than a month, was broken; all things began
to appear more natural; my appetite became strong, though I was weak
in body; I looked haggard, but I believed my system was thoroughly
cleansed. I know now, and I knew then, that I understood my own case
better than others. I only needed a word of encouragement and comfort
to set me all right, instead of censure and cold neglect.
My words of self-reproach, and confession of moral delinquency, had
been taken advantage of, to charge me with crimes of which I was never
guilty. It is true that I felt that I was a great sinner in general;
that I never had done anything as I ought to have done it; yet when
asked to define what I meant, and name the particulars in which my
great sins consisted, I recollect how dumb and vacant my mind would be,
and wondered why I could not frame an answer to their questions.
It finally resolved itself into this, that I had done just nothing at
all, all my days, and yet had been supported by the people for doing
nothing, and that for this I should be damned.
Yet, I say, that all these thoughts were giving way to a more calm
and steady state of mind, instead of that fear and haste which had
haunted me for more than a month; I began to be more indifferent also
to outward circumstances.
Being in my own house, I thought I could act out my feelings without
fear of consequences. I never once thought of the danger of getting
into the asylum. I had never thought such a thing possible, for I knew
that insanity was never known in one of my family. Could I have had one
hint that my restlessness was leading to this, I think I could have
prevented it, and should have done so.
But I wish here to enter my protest against the manner that thousands
are rushed into the asylum, by those who have no knowledge of asylum
life and but little if any knowledge of the philosophy of the human
mind. Many have been sent there who had been ill but a few days, and
were soon over it, and could they have been left at home a week longer,
all would have been right; whereas, by being sent to the asylum, they
have been kept there confined for two years—for when once in the
asylum, it is no easy matter to get away in a short time, unless they
run away.
I know men in the asylum who were thrown in there by their friends,
under some peculiar influence, who have been there from six to fifteen
years; and they are the same now as when they entered it, not insane,
but perhaps a little eccentric, or may entertain some notions on
religion or philosophy that are not regarded orthodox. They are in good
health, perfectly harmless, and, so far as I could judge, would make
better inhabitants than one-fourth of the people that are at large.
The question now arises—“What would you have done to remedy the evil
of putting men and women in the asylum that should never go there?”
My answer is, that I would so change the laws that two inexperienced
quack doctors could not govern the destinies of the people of a whole
county. I would first require that those men who are to decide on the
fate of their neighbors should be men of experience and discretion,
and that there should be at least five of them in a county, chosen by
the people for that purpose; I would also require that the patient be
brought before a jury of twelve men, who shall decide the matter after
the five doctors have examined the patient and given their opinions.
I would require that those five doctors should make themselves
acquainted with asylum life; I speak now of State asylums, not private
ones. I would have them know how patients are treated, as to medicine,
diet, &c. For how can a jury or doctors recommend and decide that the
asylum is the proper place for the patient, when they know nothing of
its character, only that it is called a State Lunatic Asylum?
I would annihilate that argument so often used to induce the ignorant
and the innocent to become willing to go to that den of death! The
argument is, that many great and noted men have been inmates of the
asylum, such as Gerrit Smith, Esquire W., General B. and Judge C.
This was the argument used on me while on my way to the prison. I
would go still further. I would require that the managers of such
an institution should not leave to one man the destinies of so many
hundreds of souls; that they should be required to see for themselves
all the internal workings of the institution, that its evils may not
become chronic and incurable. I would also require that patients be
treated as men and women, and not as dumb beasts, in the manner of
doctoring them; that the doctors should conform to the same rules that
they would out of the institution in doctoring free agents. That is
to say, that, when a patient is cured of a certain disease for which
medicine is given, the medicine so given shall be taken off or stopped,
and not continued for weeks and months after the end is gained for
which the medicine is given. To illustrate what I mean: The doctor
orders a certain kind of medicine to a patient; it is a strong tonic,
for instance, to give strength and an appetite; the patient takes it
three times a day for three months; at the end of three months the
patient finds himself well, with a strong appetite, and works hard
every day. The patient now says to the doctor, that he feels well,
has a good appetite, and thinks the medicine had better be taken off,
as it begins to act too heavily upon the system. The doctor replies,
“that the medicine must not be taken off; that he must take it as long
as he lives, and ask no questions.” Would any one, out of such an
institution, employ such a physician? Now we all know that anywhere
but in a lunatic asylum, medicine is not given except in cases of
necessity, and when the object is gained for which the medicine is
given, the medicine is taken off or withheld. Is this so in the asylum?
Every man in that institution, who is sane enough to know the current
events of the asylum, knows this is not so. I am a witness, with
hundreds besides me, that medicine once ordered will be continued three
times a day for two years, without interruption, and no questions asked
the patient by the doctors about the effect of that medicine. I know
it was so in my case, and no argument or remonstrance could induce the
doctor to even change the medicine. I shall have occasion to say more
on this subject in another place. I would have this matter regulated.
I have not a doubt, that if all these matters were fully and rightly
investigated and controlled, a much smaller number would be sent to the
asylum, and those who were sent would have less reason to complain. I
do not mean that that institution or any other could be so conducted
that none would complain of ill treatment; this perhaps would be
impossible; but it could be so conducted that there would be far less
suffering there than now exists.