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First Annual Report Of The Trustees Of State Lunatic Hospital

From: Reports And Other Documents Relating To The State Lunatic Hospital At Worcester, Mass.
Creator:  Horace Mann, Bezaleel Taft, Jr., W.B. Calhoun, Alfred Dwight Foster, and F.C. Gray (authors)
Date: December 1833
Publisher: Dutton and Wentworth, Boston
Source: Available at selected libraries

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There is another cause which has now ceased to operate, and which fortunately can never again recur, that has been highly adverse to the success of the institution during the current year. The Trustees allude to the reception of one hundred and sixty-four insane persons into this establishment during a period of little more than eleven months. In most cases it was impossible to obtain any accurate information of the specific kind of insanity which characterized the condition of each individual. A just classification, therefore, could not be made, until the Superintendent had been aided by an exact observation of each case ; and the inevitable mistake of sometimes placing individuals improperly together, would be first manifested by the injurious influences exerted by them all upon each other. The nurses and attendants, who at first were not only without experience, but destitute of any just conception of their peculiar duties, were to be morally trained and instructed themselves. It must be obvious too, that numberless unforeseen accidents and occurrences of an adverse nature must be inevitably attendant upon the first operations of so large and complicated an establishment.

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Yet notwithstanding these untoward circumstances, counteracting with great force all healthful and mind-restoring influences, thirty-two insane persons have, in this short period of time, been fully recovered.

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But, however deeply all our better feelings may be moved by the reflection, that thirty-two of our fellow beings, under the auspicious influences of this institution, have already been restored to reason, and returned to bless the families and friends, who, under the former coercive system of treatment, would have mourned their loss "without hope;" yet the ameliorated condition of such as have not been recovered, the Trustees regard as a subject for equal congratulation among men and gratitude to heaven. No one, who has not actually seen, from time to time, the inmates of the Hospital, can comprehend the extent of the change which has taken place in every external indication that marks the physical and moral condition of a human being. Many who, in their paroxysms, used formerly to wound and lacerate their own persons to a degree that threatened life itself, now habitually exercise an ordinary degree of prudence in avoiding the common causes of annoyance and accident. Not less than one hundred of those brought to the Hospital seemed to regard human beings as their enemies, and their first impulse was to assail them with open or disguised force. Now there are not more than twelve who offer violence. Of forty persons, who formerly divested themselves of clothing, even in the most inclement seasons of the year, only eight do it now. Through all the galleries, there is far less susceptibility to excitement, more quietude, more civility and kindness exercised towards each other. The wailings of the desponding and the ravings of the frantic are dispelled. The internal change is legible upon the countenance. With the insane it is emphatically true, that the dark shadows of the mind are visibly projected upon the face. Hence, from the alteration which has in many instances occurred in the outward aspect, amounting almost to a change in identity, there may be inferred a corresponding alteration of the condition within. The deep lines of anguish have been obliterated or softened, whose sharp engravings were begun, many years ago, in despair. The wide circle and heart-sickening variety of horrors, exhibited by the inmates, when first brought together, as though every region of the "dark immense" of insanity had sent a representative of its terrors, have been greatly reduced in extent, and mitigated in quality. If the erroneous action of the mind has not yet been rectified, the dreadful emotions that once accompanied and aggravated its movements have been dispelled, and they are now succeeded by milder and more peaceful sentiments. Happily, the feelings and emotions may be divested of their pain and terror, even after the intellect has forever lost all power of distinguishing the true from the false in its ideas and perceptions.

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The system of treatment from which the foregoing results have been realized, has been a continued endeavor to preserve or re-establish the bodily health of the patients by careful attention to cleanliness, exercise, air, and a suitable diet. It has been the law of all those engaged in administering the daily affairs of the institution, to exclude, as far as in any manner possible, all causes of mental disquietude, by substituting persuasion for force, by practising forbearance, mildness, and all the nameless offices of humanity, and by imbuing in every practicable way, the minds of the patients with a new set of pleasing, cheerful, grateful and benevolent emotions. In fine, the whole scheme of moral treatment is embraced in a single idea -- humanity -- the law of love -- that sympathy which appropriates another's consciousness of pain, and makes it a personal relief from suffering, whenever another's sufferings are relieved.

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