Page:The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 1884.djvu/125

In a tenth house were two who would not work or assist in anything. The price paid for each was $50.

In only one instance did I find a patient in restraint. He was a strong man in charge of a woman by no means masculine, whose husband was in the fields. Finding that her charge was breaking and tearing every object in his reach, she had, with the permission of the section physician, put him in a camisole.

A couple of cases from Dr. Peeters' records^[1] will illustrate very vividly the nature of many others met with:

A patient named Virginia A., number 6746 on the register, had been a year at the asylum Sainté-Anne-les-Courtrai. She entered the infirmary at Gheel on May 14, 1880, and presented at this date. all the symptoms of intense mania. She was constantly in movement, ran about the court-yard, and accosted every one. She talked unceasingly and with ease, but what she said was incoherent and confused. She would frequently scream, sing, commit extravagant acts, tear her clothing, or pick the coverings of her bed. She did not sleep at all.

On May 19th the patient was placed in charge of a peasant guardian living in a quiet locality some distance from the town. The instructions were: gentle supervision, protection from all causes of excitement, occupation in household affairs and out-of-doors. At the end of three weeks one would scarcely believe that they beheld the same patient, for she had entirely recovered. Fearing a return of an excitement which had so suddenly disappeared, we did not dare sign a certificate allowing of her departure until the 27th of the month. But the cure remained permanent, and the patient returned to her own home on October 2d.

A patient named Mary V., number 6094 on the register, suffering from delirious melancholy. Energetic moral and other treatment, and the devoted attentions of the "sisters" did not succeed in modifying her condition. She spent the day in lamentation, saw the preparations for the frightful punishment which she believed she would be obliged to suffer, and slept neither day nor night.

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1. Translated from Lettres Médicales sur Gheel, etc., seconde lettre. p. 29, by Dr. J. H. Peeters, Médecin Inspecteur, Sept., 1880.