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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    neglected children, old and young, each and all, witness this lowest, foulest state of miserable humanity. And who protects her, that worse than Paria outcast, from other wrongs and blacker outrages ? I do not knoio that such have been. I do know that they are to be dreaded, and that they are not guard- ed against. Some may say these things cannot be remedied ; these furious maniacs are not to be raised from these base conditions. I know they are; could give many examples ; let one suffice. A young woman, a pauper, in a distant town, Sandisjield, was for years a raging maniac. A cage, chains, and the whip, were the agents for controlling her, united with harsh tones and profane language. Annually, with others (the town's poor) she was put up at auction, and bid off at the lowest price which was declared for her. One year, not long past, an old man came forward in the number of applicants for the poor wretch ; he was taunted and ridiculed ; what would he and his old wife do with such a mere beast ? My wife says yes, replied he, and I shall take her. She was given to his charge ; he conveyed her home ; she was washed, neatly dressed, and placed in a decent bed-room, furnished for comfort and opening into the kitchen. How altered her condition ! As yet the chains were not off. The first week she was somewhat restless, at times violent, but the quiet kind ways of the old people wrought a change ; she received her food decently ; for- sook acts of violence, and no longer uttered blasphemous or indecent language; after a week, the chain was lengthened, and she was received as a companion into the kitchen. Soon she engaged in trivial employments. After a fortnight, said the old man, 1 knocked off the chains and made her a free woman. She is at times excited, but not violently ; they are careful of her diet; they keep her very clean; she calls them father and mother. Go there now and you will find her clothed, and though not perfectly in her right mind, so far restored as to be a safe and comfortable inmate. Newhuryport. Visited the almshouse in June last; eighty inmates ; seven insane, one idiotic. Commodious and neat house ; several of the partially insane apparently very com- fortable ; two very improperly situated, namely, an insane man, not considered incurable, in an out-building, whose room open- ed upon what was called 'the dead room,' affording in lieu of companionship with the hving, a contemplation of corpses ! The other subject was a woman in a cellar. I desired to see her ; much reluctance was shown. I pressed the requestt; the Master of the House stated that she was in the cellar ; that she was dangerous to he approached ; that' she had lately attack-