Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/70

62 ?The capacity to do profitable work varies among the different classes of patients. Idiots, according to Dr. Peeters, make efficient laborers, unless their disease is too far advanced. To prevent abuse, it is stipulated that the nourricier shall not decide on his own responsibility whether his patient shall work or not; that is determined by medical permission or prescription. The patients are apt to work too much. They become interested in the occupations of the family and follow them to the fields, unless they are prohibited by the physician, and are in this way often tempted to do the full day's work of a strong man—sometimes, possibly, to their harm. The compensation they receive depends, of course, upon the work they do. Sometimes they receive a small sum at the end of the week; sometimes they are paid in tobacco, eggs, beer, or articles of clothing. But the administration takes care that they get something, either in the form of a present or as regular pay.

The regulations of internal discipline imposed on the patients are very simple. They can go out between eight o'clock in the morning and four o'clock in the afternoon in the winter, and between six and six in the summer, and at other hours by special permission. Only quiet patients can resort to the inns, and it is forbidden to give spirituous liquors to any of them. If the patient does not desire to work, he can indulge his taste for reading or art; in pleasant weather he can go to Gheel or walk in the country, alone or with a friend; but he is not allowed to travel on the railroad or to go away.

The question is in order of the effect of this liberty upon the personal security and the health and morality of the population of Gheel.

Suicides are very rare; there has been only one since 1879; there were three between 1875 and 1879, and others in 1850 and 1851. No act of violence has been recorded since 1878. But such things have occurred, as when, in 1844, the burgomaster, who was also a druggist, was assassinated by an insane herbalist, who imagined him his rival in trade. Dr. Peeters can recall only three cases of crime in a very long time. The personal security of the lunatics is sometimes compromised by the dealers selling them liquors. The fact is always a grave one, for it implies a deficiency in the surveillance. We have already said that four guards of section are not enough. More are needed, to watch those who have their senses, as well as those who have lost them. In this way only can some of the objectionable features inherent in the mode of life carried out at Gheel be eliminated. Escapes are by no means rare. Sixty-six cases occurred in the six years, 1876-1881, or an average of about nine a year. Whenever a patient betrays an inclination to run away, instead of being subjected to measures of coercion, he is usually sent to a close asylum. It is a fact worthy of remark that, in nine cases out of ten, attempts at escape take place on Sunday. This is usually because the nourriciers go off and amuse themselves on that day, and leave their patient to take care