Memorial, to the Legislature of Massachusetts.

  • Dix, Dorothea Lynde, 1802-1887.
Date:
[1843]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memorial, to the Legislature of Massachusetts. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    very cold ; the first movement of my conductor was to throw open a window, a measure imperatively necessary for those who entered. On the floor sat a woman, her limbs immov- ably contracted, so that tlie knees were brought upward to the chin ; the face was concealed ; the head rested on the folded arms; for clothing she appeared to have been furnished with fragments of many discharged garments ; these were folded about her, yet they little benefitted her, if one might judge by the constant shuddering which almost convulsed her poor crip- pled frame. Woful was this scene ; language is feeble to record the misery she was suffering and had suffered ! In reply to my inquiry if she could not change her position, I was answered by the master in the negative, and told that the con- traction of limbs was occasioned by neglect and exposure in former years, but since she hod been crazy, and before she fell under the charge, as I inferred, of her present guardians. Poor wretch ! she, like many others, was an exan)ple of what humanity becomes when the temple of reason falls in ruins, leaving the mortal part to injury and neglect, and showing how much can be endured of privation, exposure, and disease, with- out extinguishing the lamp of life. Passing out, the man pointed to a something, revealed to more than one sense, which he called her bed; and we throw some blankets over her at night. Possibly this is done; others, like myself, might be pardoned a doubt, if they could have seen all 1 saw, and heard abroad all I heard. The bed, so called, was about three feet long, and from a half to three- quarters of a yard wide ; of old ticking or tow cloth was the case; the contents might have been a full handful of hay or straw. My attendant's exclamations on my leaving the house were emphatic, and can hardly be repeated. The above case recalls another of equal neglect or abuse. Asking my way to the almshouse in Berkeley, wliich had been repeatedly spoken of as greatly neglected, I was answered as to the direction, and informed that there were plenty of insane people and idiots there. Well taken care of? Oh, well enough for such sort of creatures ? Any violently insane 1 Yes ; my sister's son is there, a real tiger. I kept him here, at my house awhile, but it was too much trouble to go on ; so I carried him there. Is he comfortably provided for ? Well enough. Has he decent clothes ? Good enough ; wouldn't wear them if he had more. Food ? « Good enough; good enough for him. One more question, has he the comfort of a fire? Fire ! fire, indeed ! what does a crazy man need of fire ? red-hot iron wants fire as much as he ! And such are sincerely the ideas of not a few persons in regard to the