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Modern Persecution, or Married Woman's Liabilities

From: Modern Persecution
Creator: Elizabeth P. W. Packard (author)
Date: 1873
Source: Available at selected libraries
Figures From This Artifact: Figure 1  Figure 2  Figure 3  Figure 4  Figure 5  Figure 6  Figure 7  Figure 8  Figure 9  Figure 10  Figure 11  Figure 12  Figure 13  Figure 14  Figure 15  Figure 16

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2469  

"On the following morning he was taken to a police station, and thence to a police court, where, on the testimony of two physicians who had never seen him until that day, he was committed to the Bloomingdale Asylum, his brother appearing as prime mover in the matter.

2470  

He remained a prisoner about three months, when, some friends having learned of his situation through letters which he was enabled to smuggle out of the asylum, a writ of habeas corpus was issued in his case, whereupon he was at once released by Dr. Brown. Although he did not intentionally take advantage of the release, it was adjudged that he had technically done so, having left the grounds and returned voluntarily; and his purpose of obtaining legal redress was thus thwarted.

2471  

In conversation with a New York Tribune reporter, this gentleman gave a minute account of the management of the asylum during the period when he was an inmate.

2472  

A prominent cause of complaint was that the establishment seemed to him to be run as a money-making institution, with little reference to the comfort or recovery of the patients. There was nothing to interest them -- no books, papers, or magazines except a few old copies of some British reviews. There were no sources of amusement except a billiard-table, and the inmates could do nothing but sit in straight-backed wooden chairs and walk in the halls.

2473  

The attendants were rough and ignorant men, who could be hired on the most moderate terms. Foul and profane language was frequently addressed by them to the patients, and he had seen personal violence used at times.

2474  

A man by the name of Bissel was subject to epileptic fits, but was not insane; frequently he had been dragged by an arm or leg into his room, and there flung violently upon the floor. Bissel was placed at one time in the "lodge," a quarter reserved for the most violent lunatics.

2475  

Dr. Brown, in this gentleman's opinion, is an indolent man, who fails to oversee the institution personally, and his deputies and attendants take advantage of this fact to neglect their duties. Thirty or forty patients were lodged in the rooms leading into each hall, and the night watchmen were frequently absent from these halls until a late hour. The doors of the rooms were not locked, and the inmates were thus left for long periods at the mercy of the most violent of their number.

2476  

He had been locked into his room on several occasions at his own request as a precautionary measure.

2477  

The bath-rooms and water-closets were arranged without the slightest attempt at comfort or even decency. They were insufficient in number and filthy in the extreme.

2478  

The patients were treated rather as servants than as gentleman; he was expected to take care of his own room and to make his own bed.

2479  

In fact, in his opinion, the whole course of treatment to which the inmate of the Bloomingdale Asylum is subjected is of a nature to intensify rather than alleviate any symptoms of insanity which lie may manifest, and to make a sane man mad.

2480  

During the short time that he was there he was able to find no occupation, and could amuse himself only by walking backward and forward in the hall -- an exercise which his keepers regarded as a conclusive proof of his unsoundness of mind!"

2481  

The name of this informant is withheld for the present, as its publication might interfere with the legal proceedings which he proposes to begin.

2482  

Mr. Chambers' Testimony.

2483  

A very unique and sensible method of ventilating this asylum, has recently been adopted by the New York Tribune company, by sending one of their most reliable reporters to that institution under the guise of a patient, under which assumed character, he made investigations of the most important and reprehensible character, both in reference to the present mode of committal, and also the mode of treatment which the patients receive at Bloomingdale Asylum.

2484  

This energetic and capable young man, Mr. Chambers, the reporter, has immortalized himself in the hearts of the humanitarians, not only of his own but all future ages, by the good this effort has secured to this department of humanitarian reform.

2485  

His testimony with regard to his admission, and the treatment he received as a patient while there, are most graphically and fully reported by himself, and have already been given to the public through the columns of the New York Tribune, of August 30th and 31st, 1872, proving without a question that all the charges of the above witnesses are founded truth; that they are not either exaggerated or overdrawn pictures in any particular.

2486  

The summing up of this reporter's mission, I can give in no better language than is given in the editorial of the Tribune, containing his report, viz.:

2487  

"The narrative now published establishes, beyond any sort of doubt, that greater facilities are offered for getting a sane man into an insane asylum than out of it. The whole medical profession is at the beck and call of all who can pay to aid in the commitment. The same man, once committed, has only the medical skill of a single physician to call to his succor; and that physician was already prejudiced against him for divers reasons. It is his interest -- to put the baser motive first and dismiss it soonest -- to keep the paying boarder as long as his friends pay his keeping. Then the endorsement of his infirmity by two reputable professional brethren leads the asylum physicians to hesitate at reversing their sworn decision. It is not merely a thing that seems to lack professional courtesy, but a delicate one; if a mistake be made it is damaging to the reputation of himself or associates, and in any event is derogatory to a profession in which the members take unusual pride. Thus prejudiced, it is natural that there should be hesitation on part of the asylum physicians, and a disposition to torture a patient's protest of sanity and appeals for release into evidences of idiocy, confirmatory of the certificate of commitment.

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