Memorial soliciting a state hospital for the insane : submitted to the Legislature of New Jersey, January 23, 1845 / [signed: D. L. Dix] ; printed by order of the Legislature of New Jersey.

  • Dix, Dorothea Lynde, 1802-1887.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memorial soliciting a state hospital for the insane : submitted to the Legislature of New Jersey, January 23, 1845 / [signed: D. L. Dix] ; printed by order of the Legislature of New Jersey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    as sometimes, and is regarded, very rightly, as a person dangerous to the community, and disposed to mischief, when thwarted in his wishes. He threatens both life and property, and often extorts, through the fears of those he importunes, what would be denied to his necessities or his fancies. In a not distant county, not long since, a young girl froze to death in the cold, wretched garret of her father's house; where abandoned to every neglect, except starvation, she for three years lingered on through sufferings which we can find no language to describe. Found dead one severe cold morning, and frozen stiff, amidst heaps of filthy straw, at one end of the remote garret; people contented themselves with saying, 'twas strange she lived so long! Another case, somewhat similar, in another of your counties, occur- red about the same time; a wife and mother, became insane; she was shut up for safety, instead of being removed to a hospital—and she too froze to death! Two others, tortured by agonies which were not alleviated as they might have been, shortened their most wretched existence by suicide. Citizens of New Jersey, have you human feelings, and can you delay this work which is solicited for the benefit of those who are, in the providence of God, cast on your care? who are emphatically your wards, the wards of the state; for whose condition hereafter you are certainly accountable—inasmuch as you are largely able to provide such a refuge for the unfriended, and asylum for the diseased, as their forlorn condition requires. As ye mete to others so shall ye receive. I will have mercy and not sacrifice, saith Jehovah. And is it not now as of old, upon the merciful that the benign benediction of the Saviour rests, declaring to us, as to the early disciples, blessed are the mer- ciful, for they shall obtain mercy! I might record volumes, in place of a few pages of briefly told indi. vidual histories; but to what purpose is it to multiply these most pain- ful, and too often revolting narratives, which exhibit variations only of like sufferings and humiliations, from which the shuddering spectator turns away, and of which he long and vainly desires forgetfulness ? Of the insane in the State Penitentiary, I have ascertained satisfac- torily, that the largest part have been committed in that conditio?!. I have myself seen and traced the history of some of those who have been sent from the counties of Gloucester, Salem, Burlington, Mon-