One day, during my stay in New York, I paid a visit to the different public institutions on Long Island, or Rhode Island: I forget which. One of them is a Lunatic Asylum. The building is handsome; and is remarkable for a spacious and elegant staircase. The whole structure is not yet finished, but it is already one of considerable size and extent, and is capable of accommodating a very large number of patients.
I cannot say that I derived much comfort from the inspection of this charity.The different wards might have been cleaner and better ordered; I saw nothing of that salutary system which had impressed me so favourably elsewhere; and everything had a lounging, listless, madhouse air, which was very painful. The moping idiot, cowering down with long dishevelled hair; the gibbering maniac, with his hideous laugh and pointed finger; the vacant eye, the fierce wild face, the gloomy picking of the hands and lips, and munching of the nails: there they were all, without disguise, in naked ugliness and horror. In the dining room, a bare, dull, dreary place, with nothing for the eye to rest on but the empty walls, a woman was locked up alone. She was bent, they told me, on committing suicide. If anything could have strengthened her in her resolution, it would certainly have been the insupportable monotony of such an existence. The terrible crowd with which these halls and galleries were filled, so shocked me, that I abridged my stay within the shortest limits, and declined to see that portion of the building in which the refractory and violent were under closer restraint.
I have no doubt that the gentleman who presided over this establishment at the time I write of, was competent to manage it, and had done all in his power to promote its usefulness: but will lit be believed that the miserable strife of Party feeling is carried even into this sad refuge of afflicted and degraded humanity? Will it be believed that the eyes which are to watch over and control the wanderings of minds on which the most dreadful visitation to which our nature is exposed has fallen, must wear the glasses of some wretched side in Politics? Will it be believed that the governor of such a house as this, is appointed, and deposed, and changed perpetually, as Parties fluctuate and vary, and as their despicable weathercocks are blown this way or that? A hundred times in every week, some new most paltry exhibition of that narrow-minded and injurious Party Spirit, which is the Simoom of America, sickening and blighting everything of wholesome life within its reach, was forced upon my notice; but I never turned my back upon it with feelings of such deep disgust and measureless contempt, as when I crossed the threshold of this madhouse.
Nellie Bly: Charles Dickens’ Visit to Blackwell’s Island Asylum 1842 – Part 4
January 3, 2009 by Lisa Waller Rogers
Did you know that Elizabeth Blackwell was the first English woman to be trained as a Doctor? Unfortunately, she could not get this training in the UK and had to come to New York for her education.
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I didn’t know that she had to train in the UK. Thanks!
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Wow, this really helped! Thanks for the information.
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How discracful that to this day , lthe emotioally and mentally ill are still Victimes of sick Orderleys call them what you willthey are employed to be of service to those in need what’s up with the sistem, I find it uterly atrocious , that just last week a male nurse was convicted for intentionally injecting lethal amounts of a chemical so as to kill many of the people he was trusted by Family and other Love ones mental and Emotionally unwell need all the support they can get Frankly I am amaze he lack of camera surveillance in these facilities, it seems quite obvioust there is not enough being done to protect these patients it’s really shocking in this day and age all I can wish for is someone who has a platform to pursue and to mandate in law. All staff are thoroughly investigate all volunteers make regular check ups on the patients in these facilities who’s voices go unheard. I wish I could make a difference but I don’t have the background I personally know I don’t need the background I just need to keep my heart open but those of you who can make a difference because of your position in life please please make this one of this One of the most important things that you do don’t forget these people be the voices that protectors and God willing there road back to recovery
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[…] police officers for blowing the whistle on their abuse of power. They include journalists Charles Dickens, sickened by what he saw at the asylum that would later house Bly; and Rosalind Adams, who […]
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