Our Insane

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 32, 6 August 1903, Page 2

Our Insane

In New Zealand, as in most other countries, statistics show a strady and nielancholj increase m the number of the insane In our tight little islands the pioportion has üm up from 10 q.3 poisons per 10, Olio „f u !e population in JS7I to 22 86 per 10,000 , r , ]BNl', 21 S2 in 1891, and 31 17 m 1901 Just now there is a lively "hum in Patliameni about overcrowding and out-of-date methods of treatment in our hospitals for the insane The modes of classification of the insane that piowul in \ustralasia generally fall far short of that which is adopted m the ' home ' and ' cottage ' systems of Belgium and Holland In this connection it will intcicsl our leaders to learn that the first rcfoims m the treatment of sufferers fioin mental disease intioduced into \ustia'ia were the vv <n k of Dr Willson, the first Catholic rvshop of Tasmania Through his untiring vial and de\ otion tl-e lot of those afflicted people m New South Wales, \ictona and Tasmania was rendered as happy as enlightened and humane care and the knowledge of the time could make it. Thci olden treatment of the insane consisted of stripes, noi, chains, and general cruelty and neglect A Spanish monk, Juan (Jilaberto Jofiie, was the pioneer of the humane tiealment of insanity He established an asvliim in Yahi.ua and gathered the liapk-s people into it Other Spanish cities speedily followed his example— Sarag<s<,i m 112"), Sevil'o and Ynllfulolid in 113(5, Toledo in 1I« -S, and divers othcis at vanous periods

Lecky tells us that when, at the close of the eighteenth century, the French Catholic physician Pinel ' began his great labors in this sphere, he pronounced Spain to be the country m which lunatics were treated with most wisdom and most humanity.'