family of his kind host. He has constituted
himself sole bread-winner for the widow and
orphans. He gives a good education to the
latter, and a more touching sight can scarcely
be imagined than the picturesque old German,
now sixty-eight years old, accompanying to
church on Sundays, the adopted children who
regard him as a father.

There is an infirmary close to the village, but
the simplicity of its arrangements betokens the
limited use made of it. It is, in fact, merely a
hospital for invalid or exceptional lunatics—no
abiding place for the insane, whose real homes
are in the houses of the Gheelites. In the
building, however, are the quarters of the
medical inspector of the colony, the manager,
and other authorities. Clothes for the insane
are also stored here, and the baths are open to
out-patients as well as in-patients.

The colony of Gheel is conducted in a liberal
spirit. No applicant for admission is refused on
account of his religion or position. Additional
pay ensures additional luxuries. At one time
an English boarder spent considerable sums in
different amusements, such as sporting, fêtes,
and pleasure parties.

Very lately, a high testimony was paid to
Dr. Bulkens's skill and system. He was
summoned to the palace of Miramar that he might
undertake the care of the unfortunate Empress
Charlotte, whose misfortunes all have deeply
deplored. It is gratifying to know that, added
to Dr. Bulkens's personal devotion to the
suffering princess, the domestic treatment of Gheel
has already had the happiest results in restoring
the equilibrium of her mind.

But it is obvious that rich patients are always
likely to be in the minority at Gheel. Everywhere
money can purchase luxury; whether it
does so for all wealthy lunatics is another
question; and we suspect that those who remember
with interest the recent trial about Mr. Tovey
Tennant's case, would wish for him greater
poverty and a refuge like Gheel. "Give me
neither poverty nor riches," was the prayer of
the wise man—still more appropriate a
supplication for these unwise innocents, whose best
riches are freedom and God's pure air.

Some may remember the pitiable case, which
was published about five years ago, of the
Falmouth idiot screeching in his garret prison for
twenty years, for his "Charlotte."

The Times of June 5, 1868, quotes a no less
pitiable story of a clergyman's son, in
Philadelphia, whom death, more merciful than his
fellow-men, set free, after sixty long years of
insanity spent in a cage.

Who knows how many more victims to
ignorance, cruelty, and avarice, may yet be pining
in confinement—prisoners to whom Gheel would
afford a safe and blessed refuge! Others, too,
there are, who, better loved and tended, might
in such a colony lead a happier life than in
circumstances of even greater luxury.

But is there no dark side to this glowing
picture? There is no darker side than this:
that Dr. Sibbald holds some judicious reforms
to be necessary at Gheel, foremost among
which is the exclusion of cases wholly unsuitable
for the family treatment—the only treatment
possible or desirable in such a colony.
These are, according to Dr. Sibbald, cases of
lunatics who generally—or even frequently—
require restraint. They would be better under
the immediate supervision of medical
authorities. But this class must not be understood
to include all violent patients; for, singular as
it may appear, these are the lodgers most
sought after by nourriciers, because the same
energy of physique and morale which renders
them obstreperous, also renders them, when
judiciously and fearlessly trained, fervent and
hearty in service.

Another class of patients which ought to be
excluded from Gheel, is composed of maniacs
who desire to escape. The continued existence
of this desire is sufficient proof that they
are discontented with their lot; and as the
nourriciers have to pay the expenses of all
escapes, such patients must be either fettered,
or watched with a jealousy more irksome to
bear than confinement in an ordinary asylum.
Dr. Sibbald would farther exclude all paralytic
patients and confirmed or frequent invalids.

Are patients more frequently cured at Gheel
than elsewhere, and do they enjoy greater
bodily health?

From a table given by Dr. Campbell in 1865
we learn the statistics of the recoveries and
deaths in the county asylums throughout
England for the preceding five years. From his
data, it appears that the average proportion of
annual recoveries to admissions was thirty-six
per cent.

Now, in reckoning from Gheel statistics, two
counterbalancing facts must be borne in mind.
A large number of incurable cases are sent to
Gheel from other asylums. For calculating
purposes, these must be deducted from the
number of admissions. But then, again, what
at Gheel are counted as cures, include not only
guérisons, but also améliorations notables.
Taking this last fact into consideration, we
find that not thirty-two per cent. can be
reckoned as cured at Gheel. The average
mortality may be said to be nearly on an
equality with that in ordinary asylums.

Perhaps, therefore, the conclusion to be
drawn is, that though, calculated to cure many
a type of insanity, the Gheel system is more
especially desirable as affording the means for a
happy and useful life to numbers who must,
under almost any other circumstances, drag
out their weary length of days in listless
inaction, fretful petulance, or dangerous ferocity.
But the mere existence of such a colony, the
fact that such a system is, and has for ages
been, possible, is immensely valuable, both in
its direct effects and in the encouraging lesson
of patience, consideration, and hope, that it
teaches to those who are of sound mind. Many
become insane, but not for all such is the whole
range of their lives necessarily and hopelessly
poisoned. If the shelter here described, be not