A VISIT TO THE LUNATIC ASYLUM.—No. 2.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 122, 26 May 1870, Page 2

A VISIT TO THE LUNATIC ASYLUM.— No. 2.

From a Correspondent. I shall now proceed to give you some little account of the buildings aud interior economy of the Asylum. The buildiDgs, as most of your readers know, are two in number, with a few yards intervening between them, the smaller of the two being occupied by the female patients and the larger by the men. In each house there is, as I mentioned yesterday, a long narrow room which serves the purpose of diningroom and wet-weather walk. Comfortless, cheerless, aud ill- ventilated, with bare walls, a small table, and a form or two, these rooms are by no means calculated to exercise a beneficial influence on the minds j of those who have been brought there to be treated for lunacy, especially if it! snows itself in the shape of melancholy.

I have made use of the words ill— Ye%tfFatedr : saT^^ more applicable^ to the dormitories on the side of the common room, for on the top of the division walls are "ventilators scrfcappily constructed as to allow all the hot air and steam from "the dining-room to pass into the bedrooms, thus producing anything but a desirable effect on the bodily health of the inmates.

And now a word as to the dormitories. If. in passing through them, you are able to divest yourself of the idea that you are in a b.ulltliog which is set aside for the reception of unfortunate individuals who are sufferiug from the {-heaviest affliction that can befall. a human being; if you can be forgetful of the fact that these unhappy people, who are there through, no fault of their own, have, some of them, been accustomed to the comforts and even to the luxuries of life, and that to be totally deprived of them must, to a great extent, add to their sufferings ; if you can bring yourself to think that the lunatic should be IreaieJ in the same manner as the criminal, then you will be of opinion that the accommodation provided for them is all that can be desired, but if you agree with me that the unfortunate individual, whop God has deprived of reason, is a being who has special claims on the liberality, the charily, • and- the sympathies of his fellow-men, then. you will say that it is high time that vast alterations were made in our Lunatic Asylum. These dormitories, I must first remark, are perfect models of cleauliness, not a speck of dust or dirt is to be found in any portion of them, but they are in reality neither more nor less than cells, some of them containing a wooden bedstead only and not another article of furniture, whilst iv others are to be found in addition the unwonted luxury .of , a table and a chair. Imagine a roan, whose, mind was just sufficiently diseased to justify the granting of the requisite certificate by two medical men, being removed. to. this building. He is, perhaps of a desponding turn of mind, but as there are no means of classifying the patients and placing them in different portions of the asylum, he is compelled to take his chance with the rest; he is provided with one of -these cells .where, he throws himself on the only article of furniture the bare-walled, comfortless room possesses, and thei'e he lies, breathing the hot, tobacco-tainted, air that streams in through the ventilators (.?), listening to the incessant tramp, tramp, tramp of the ; restless madman who from morniug till night paces up and down until his heavy I footsteps seem to take to themselves words which are hour after hour dinned into the ears and impressed upon the tottering brain of the new comer — or, now and then perhaps,; this monotonous soun<} is broken iin upon by the melancholy, meaningless laugh of the idior, or the screeching voice of the excitable maniac as something or other happens to rouse his anger, but this soon dies away again, and then once more all is sile.nce with the one dreadful exception of the never ending tramp, tramp, tramp. Shall we wonder, if, in such cases, incipient lunacy becomes confirmed madness, or shall we not rather say that unless improved accommodation is provided for our afflicted fellow-creatures in that which should really be an asylum and not a mere house of detention, the fittest motto that could possibly be inscribed over its doors would be : " Who enters here leaves hope behind " ? '

So much for the interidr of the building. Let us now go outside arid we find ourselves in what at first sight might be taken for a moderate-sized poultry yard, and yet this is the sole place of exercise for some twenty men. It is true that those who are to be trusted are allowed in the garden, where they occasionally work, but. as a safe place this miserable little yard is the only place where exercise of any kind can be obtained. Then again there are no means of providing employment for the inmates, who are thus compelled to sit in idleness broodiDg over their sorrows the whole day long. Thofce who like it and are to be trusted, have, as I said before, permission to work in the garden, but all men are not gardeners, and digging in itself is not so fascinating an occupation as to possess charms for everyone, but if there were rooms set apart for different occupations such as carpentering,, sailmaking, or any such employments as would be likely to be entered into by those of the more active-minded, it would not only prove an immense boon to them but might also be made remunerative. Thereisone more great want to which I must allude, namely the

total absence of books — and when I say books I mean-such -as are possessed _of any attraction for. those for whose use they are destined. At present there is a hig-gledy-piggledy collection of some 200 volumes, but. how. on earth they ever found their way to the library shelves of- -a Lunatic Asylum is a perfect mystery to me. Most of them are old publications averaging from 30 to 70 years of age, and principally on the most, abstruse subjects, in, fact, I should imagine that anyone wading through such a mass of printing as is there to be found, would, by so doingj be establishing an undeniable claim to a permanent residence in the building where the literature in question is to be found. ProTusely illustrated books of a cheerful and interesting character are most urgeutly wanted, and ought to be supplied, either from public fuudsjoi by privale benevolence, and Ido earnestly hope that a step wi'l soon be made in this direction, if in none other, towards lightening the weary hours of many a one whose thoughts might thus be beguiled from incessantly dwelling upon himself aud his misfortunes.

I have devoted so much space to faultfinding that I have but little left for the far more agreeable task of bestowing praise where I honestly think that a very large meed of it is due. In the first place then I must express the very great satisfaction, it gave me to find how interested the medical officer evidently was in the various cases under his charge. There was no doubt in my mind that he had carefully studied the various symptoms, and that, while acutely feeling the immense disadvantage at which he was placed by the want of proper accommodation, and the absence of all meaus of classifying and separating the patients, he was losing no opportunity of doing all that lay in his power towards relieving the poor creatures under his care. Of the warden and matron, too it is impossible to speak too highly. Their hearts are in their work, and I hardly know which pleased me the most — the jovial chaffing way in. which the former would accost some morose, sullen, patient, and by so doing rouse him to a sense of what was going on around him, aud induce him to enter into conversation; or the kindly genial manner in which the latter bustled about among her charges, saying a soothing word here, an encouraging word there, now smoothing away some little difficulty which had assumed gigantic proportions in the eyes of the poor semi-idiotic patient, and again by a kindly yet determined look quieting the noisy maniac whose anger had been excited by some passing event. Nor must I omit to notice the scrupulous cleanliness which was every where observable; if the dining-room is small and ill-ventilated, it is' at all event 3 in such a state that you might eat your meals from off the floor, so beautifully white and clean is it kept; if the bedrooms are cells, all that soap aud water and hard work could do towards rendering them habitable has been fully accomplished. With but limited means at their disposal, those in charge of the Asylum havo contrived to render it as comfortable and as serviceable as possible, but there is a loud call for increased accommodation and greater conveniences for treating the patients, and if anything I have written should awaken the public interest in this matter — I don't mean an ephemeral interest that shall die away with the laying aside of the newspaper, but one that shall be productive of good practical results — my object will have been fully attained. Our Provincial Council is now iv session, and it will be a positive disgrace to that body if it should allow another year to elapse without, either urging upon- the General Government the necessity that exists for establishing a Colonial Asylum, or taking steps towards remedying the numerous defects that are to be found in our present institution.

The Madras Times exhausts the power of language in efforts to describe the splendour of the entertainments given on board the Galatea to Indian notabilities. The ship was beautifully lighted by three rows of flaming gas jets running from sfeui to stern, and glittering like a line of slat's up to the mast heads. The Tndian guests fraternised most warmly will; their European friends. In fact, they all expressed their desire to go to England.' Ulwar wished to set off at once. The daughter of the Begum of Bhopal and other native princesses hoped they might obtain a passage in the Galatea. The Madras Times mischievously adds — " All this was after Bupper."_j| _tJ .^^i iii^di&aafli