Two years and four months in a lunatic asylum : $b from August 20th, 1863 to December 20th, 1865Chase, Hiram
Science
Two years and four months in a lunatic asylum : $b from August 20th, 1863 to December 20th, 1865
Chase, Hiram
Chase, Hiram; Mentally ill -- Care -- New York (State) -- Utica; Mentally ill, Writings of the, American
He became at length quite helpless, and the attendant had to assist him
into the bath. There was an attendant on that hall at that time by the
name of Smith, from North Carolina, as John Subert had now left. This
Smith was as cruel as an Arab. I was told many things which he did;
among the rest, he would throw Major Doolittle into the bath and scrub
him with soft soap, until he would groan horribly, while Smith would
laugh. Suffice it to say the major died in the asylum. I understood the
cruelty of Smith was the cause of his dismissal soon after. I know he
left the place, but as to the cause I know nothing, only by hearsay.
CHAPTER VII.
I brought down my narrative in the preceding chapter to about August,
1864. All things went on in about the same monotonous manner, taking
medicine three times a day, eating three meals, working some in the
field and walking out with the attendants.
When September came, Sabbath school celebrations, and picnics of
various clubs were frequently held in groves near Utica. To these, some
of the patients had frequent invitations to go. I was generally invited
to go to these, and frequently went, but I cannot say that I enjoyed
them, I could enjoy nothing of this kind while known as a lunatic, in a
lunatic asylum.
Some from there seemed to enjoy themselves just as well as if they had
been the superintendents of the schools. There is a state of mind that
is not unfavorably affected by placing them in the asylum—such for
instance as one under the influence of hallucinations—there are many in
that institution who believe they own the asylum, they think they run
the institution with all its machinery!
As I was there during the war of the rebellion, I found many were
brought there through the war excitement; some believed they were
brigadier-generals; others believed they had been in the war and in
many battles, who never saw a battle-field, nor ever shouldered a
musket.
On one occasion, I recollect that a large number of patients
accompanied by the attendants were on the ground. While there, the
patients were allowed to stroll around the grounds and mingle with the
people about as they pleased, the attendants only taking care that
they did not leave the inclosure. I saw it was a good opportunity for
any who desired it to run away, and I had but little doubt but on our
return home our numbers would be less than when we came, and so it
turned out; this only shows that the great majority of the patients
are held there against their will—this, however, is no objection to the
institution itself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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