Institutions for the insane in Prussia, Austria, and Germany / by Pliny Earle.

  • Earle, Pliny, 1809-1892.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Institutions for the insane in Prussia, Austria, and Germany / by Pliny Earle. 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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    the insane, and the advancement of the knowledge ot the proper method of the treatment of mental diseases.* In 1810, the Abbey of Schenau, in Nassau, was pre- pared and opened for the reception of the insane. In oiher parts of Prussia and Germany, as an almost ne- cessary result, not of the movements in Saxony alone, but also of the periodical and other publications upon the subject, a general interest began to be more actively awakened in regard to the public institutions. As one evidence of this, Dr. Langermann, a prominent physician connected with the Asylum at Baireuth, was called to Berlin in 1810 for the purpose of organizing the institutions for the insane. In the early part of the second decennium of the current century, the hospital of Sonnen- stein was opened. In 1812, the Asylum at Sorau com- menced operations, and in the same year, the patients at Schenau were removed to Eberbach. In 1815, and the next succeeding years, the institution last mentioned was considerably improved, and in 1817, the Asylum for incu- rables at Ybbs, in Lower Austria, was opened, but only as an unorganized department of an almshouse. During the third decennium, the progress of improvement was more rapid than at any antecedent period. The institu- tion at Prague was opened, at its present location, in 1822, and enlarged in 1827. The Asylum at Siegburg went into operation in 1825, that of Dusseldorf in 1826, that of Hildesheim in 1827, and Colditz in 1829. The patients of the old receptacle at Pforzheim, in Baden, were remov- ed to the St. Michel-Kloster, at Heidelberg, in 1826, and before the termination of the decade, the preliminary * Reil was also a Saxon; for the teritory now known as Prussian Saxony, belonged, until after the wars of Napoleon, to the kingdom of Saxony. It is probable that the writings of that author contributed much towards hastening the action of the government.