Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal (Volume 18) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1875 Excerpt: ... The Lunatic Colony of Belgium, The most novel experiment ever instituted in the management of the insane is to be found at Gheel, in Belgium, where the entire resident population of 11,000 persons, men, women and children, are engaged in taking care of 1300 lunatics. It is said that Gheel was an asylum for the special treatment of the insane so long as six centuries ago, and that the modern treatment was employed there, long before its general introduction. The lunatics are not kept in an asylum, but board and lodge with the inhabitants. In 1851 the institution was reorganized and placed under the government. The commune of Gheel, with its outlying hamlets, is very extensive; it covers 27,000 acres. The commune is divided into four sections. At the head of each are placed a medical man and an overseer. The patients are from all nations and all ranks of society, and they receive accommodation according to their means. The wealthy are placed with the wealthier class of inhabitants, and the poor with the poorer. The more dangerous class of lunatics are placed in the outlying isolated hamlets. They are divided into sections, according to the nature of their disease. The 11,000 inhabitants are, so to speak, all engaged in the surveillance of the patients, which makes about nine overseers for every patient. The surveillance not being perceived by the patients, of course does not irritate them. The commune earns directly more than 500,000 francs annually through the keeping of the lunatics, and indirectly also a great deal through the cheap work of all kinds which the patients perform for the inhabitants. It is the personal interest of the inhabitants to do their duty well by the patients, as these are entrusted only to people whose moral fitness and means of exis...