Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 05.pdf/192

 Broaamoor Asylum and its Inmates. under Dr. William Orange, and succeeded that gentleman in 1886, received us with the utmost kindness, and initiated us into all the mysteries of the asylum life and administra tion. We of course selected the most sen sational topics for the subject matter of our inquiry. Escapes from the asylum are of rare occurrence, — the height of the surrounding wall and the absolute smoothness of its copestone render this intelligible. Between the opening of the asylum in 1863 and the end of 1877, only twenty-three inmates escaped. Between 1877 and 1880 there were no es capes, and between 1880 and the present year very few. The majority were recap tured on the next or following day, one not till three months after his escape, and four were never discovered. Although a large proportion of the past and present inmates ot Broadmoor has been and is composed of convicted murderers and murderesses, no case of actual homicide has occurred within the asylum since 1863; and yet no forms of me chanical restraint, such as fetters, straitwaistcoats, leg-locks, straps, or padded rooms, are resorted to, or indeed are to be found within the walls of the asylum; the superin tendents and officials have no firearms or weapons of any kind for their own protection, and the only safeguard that exists against the violence of this strange colony of mad criminals is an unusually large staff of pow erful and imperturbable attendants. In the main this regime has worked well; and it is clearly for the good of the patients that the treatment should as far as possible proceed on the assumption that they are still amen able to ordinary human, motives, and be di rected to the reconstruction, rather than to the dispersion, of the scattered fragments of their reason. But the defencelessness of the officials at Broadmoor has on several occa sions been taken advantage of. One Sunday about twenty-five years ago, during the Com munion, and when the chaplain was in the middle of the collect for the Queen, a patient with a sudden yell rushed at Dr. Meyer, then the superintendent, who was kneeling,

167

surrounded by his family, close to the altar, and a deadly blow was struck at his head with a large stone slung in a handkerchief. The stone inflicted a serious injury, and the blow would have been fatal if it had not been somewhat turned aside by the promptness with which the arm of the patient was seized by an attendant. The chaplain was never afterwards able to say the particular collect which was interrupted in so awful a manner. A similar attack was made on Dr. Orange, who preceded Dr. Nicholson as superintend ent of Broadmoor; and unless my memory deceives me, Dr. Nicholson himself was a few years ago temporarily laid aside from duty by a blow from the hand of a patient. In spite of these gloomy memories, however, the lives of the inmates of Broadmoor are, on the whole, both smooth and attractive. Con certs, Punch and Judy shows, and private dramatic representations are held in the theatre, the walls of which are decorated with fantastic paintings, the handiwork of a gifted artist once a patient in the asylum. Chess, draughts, billiards, bagatelle, and whist are the usual indoor games; while bowls, cricket, and croquet are played out of doors. Al though work is not compulsory, — for Broad moor is not, of course, a prison, — a large number of the inmates are engaged in useful employment. Some clean the wards; others repair clothes and linen, furniture, mats and carpets; others are engaged in the laundry and on the farm; an eighth of the patient's earnings is put to his credit, and he is allowed to spend it as he thinks best. Grice and I saw orders drawn on their accounts by pa tients, for the purchase of apple-trees for their gardens and other articles; and pay ments in such cases are made by transfer orders similar to checks on a banker. The asylum is a model of cleanliness, good disci pline, and comfort, and reflects the highest credit on Dr. Nicholson and his assistants. The patients are recruited chiefly from the lower, but to some extent also from the midde and upper classes. We conversed with a great number of patients, heard their griev