Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1869 — A Colony of Insane People. [ARTICLE]

A Colony of Insane People.

Pnor.OniMDr«*n, tnhia work on “ Mental Pathology and Therapeutics'* says: ** A coloiry or the insane has been formed In the remarkable Belgian village of Gheel, in which, for several ‘hundred years past, i tafiarira have lived together with the inhabitants, .and even realded fin their femiliea. In former' timM people frequently resorted thither to supplicate the aid of Dympbue, the natron *u>t of the insane, although people are ieldom In the habit now of tousurang- her oracle. Oat of a populationof about 0,000, it has from 900 to 1,000 inhabitants who are insane. The fanatics enjoy an amount of freedom which never pould. be permitted them 1% * the leal or agricultural employments of the sane. The treatment in the main is very mild, and restraint 'ia 1 never made use of without previously oanmdting a physician. Suicide ia<rare, and the 1 general physical health ert torri that in two of the patirats iMpbafr, gpmrdM>( 100 yean of age. Owing to the ptedlial* situhtion of Gheeh escape by.the patients ia difficult. With afi ltd advantages, it has undoubted drawbacks. But the experiment at Gheel has proved that the greater number of the insane 40-bot require the confinement of an afiylum ; that many of Bern can safely be trusted with more liberty lhan those itaafitoUone allow* and t&t association in ikmlfy life'is very beneficial to mahy Insane patients.