TEN DAYS IN THE MOUNT VIEW ASYLUM.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3253, 5 December 1881, Page 4

TEN DAYS IN THE MOUNT VIEW ASYLUM.

By an Ex-Patient,

[No. I.] How I contrived without qualifying myBelf by becoming a lunatic, duly certified as such by two medical practitioners, to spend ten days and nights in tho Mount View Asylum, I would rather not particularly explain. Suffice it to say that I was not sent to the Asylum by anybody, but entered it of my own free will, as a perfectly sane man, to receive medical treatment to avert the culmination in wild delirium of a disease which would inevitably have killed me. I walked up to the door of the institution, presented a Judge's order for admission, and immediately afterwards found myself introduced to two of the attendants, who instantly took me to the bathroom, and placed me in a hot bath—in which, by the way, I fainted. However, I came to, was rubbed down, and placed in bed in a room on the opposite side of a corridor. The windows were guarded by sliding iron shutters inside, which, being closed, nob a ray of light could penetrate. Then the door was locked and I was left in Cimmerian darkness—darkness which one could almost feel as tangible and solid. There was, above the door of the room a sort of jalousie window, opening to admit light; but that had been so adjusted that complete interior darkness was maintained —a highly necessary measure for the patient in a case bordering upon that awful visitation, delirium tremens. I felt I was in for it, set my teeth, and summoned to my aid such courage as I possessed. Then followed a curious sort of doze in the pitch black darkness. Titokowaru had me bound to a tree and was chopping me up by inches with a tomahawk, while grey-bearded Te Whiti looked approvingly on. Then the scene changed, and his Satanic Majesty — horns, hoofs, tail and all—accompanied by a whole legion of attendant imps—■ «' Blue devils and white devils, Black devils and grey." seemed to appear before my appalled visioni and commenced to torture me. The devil in chief put me through a sort of catechism, and extorted from me—or rather from another devil within me —a confession of all the errors and transgressions of my past life, winding up with showing me a panoramic representation of myself literally roasting in the infernal regions. Then the big devil and the small devils danced a sort of war-dance round mo, and chanted a mocking chorus, ere they finally disappeared. Anon, pleasanter visions followed. As in a panorama, all the events of my life, from childhood upwards, passed before my eyes. Gentle voices whispered in my ears, soft hands clasped my own, and I began to experience a state of almost celestial beatitude. But hark ! there is a noise at the door of the room ; the door is thrown open with a clash, the light of a bull's-eye lantern flashes upon my face, and a kindly voice says, 'Well, old man, how do you find yourself now ? ' Then a pleasant face bends over mine, and I know the doctor (Gillon) has come. I get a powerful sleeping draught, and my previous visions all disappear. Chloral and henbane exorcise the demons, and I sink into slumber. An attendant looks in every two hours and administers a fresh dose Eor a day or two I exist in a sort of wilderness of dreams, till one fine morning I thoroughly awake and realise the situation. I manage to get up and dress, and from that moment rapidly recover —appetite, strength, and every other condition of health speedily coming back again. It is a queer sensation for a sane man to find himself in an institution amongst some 150 lunatics. Moreover, I had ' committed ' myself to a detention, for a whole month amongst those gibbering idiots, apathetic imbeciles, and raving madmen. At the first thought of this I would gladly have given all I ever possessed in the world to be outside the gates, mounted on a good horse, and with a chance for liberty. Bub after a smoke I began to regard my position with somewhat of philosophical resignation. I had voluntarily entered the institution to be cured of a certain ailment, and I was now on the high road to recovery. I would therefore ' accept the situation,' try to get well, and meantime amuse myself by studying the manners and idiosyncrasies of the lunatics, and the system of treatment and management adopted in the Asylum. Here goes then for a description of a day's routine of life in the Mount View Institution. All the patients are locked up in their separate rooms or associated rooms at 8 o'clock p.m. till 6.30 a.m., the windows being guarded on the inside by heavy shutters. That gives them 10| hours in darkness to sleep or meditate. The confirmed lunatic who has been long in the asylum usually sleeps or dozes the whole time. Restless or fidgety lunatics do not sleep half that time, but they are locked in and cannot get out till the time is up. As a rule, the patients lie quietly in bed, but now and again somebody gets up and knocks about to the disturbance of his fellow patients. Then a slight row ensues, and presently the night-vt atchman (Hill) appears with his bull's eye lantern. Hill is a pleasant-faced, kindly young fellow of about 20, who is the only human being left in charge of the Asylum at night. Yet, singlehanded, he maintains quiet and order —often going into a room containing a dozen lunatics and instantly quelling any disagreement which may have arisen. Of course, if the poor creatures took combined action, they might do deadly injury to Hill before he could obtain aid. But, then, lunatics never do combine, so that Hill is comparatively safe. This attendant is wonderfully good-natured, and can coax a lunatic to do anything. But he is broad-shouldered, deep-chested, and strongarmed, so that, if need be, he could hold his own for a time in any row which might arise. At 6.30 a.m. the doors of the rooms and wards are thrown open, and all is bustle and animation. A portion of the patients go to the spacious bath-room and have a warm bath. This bathing system is so arranged that every patient has a thorough washing all over at least once a week. Eor my own part I had a most delicious warm bath every morning the instant I jumped out of bed, taking care to get it before the lunatics appeared on the scene. Breakfast follows ab 7.30 in the several large halls contained in the different wings of the building. In some of those halls as many as 50 patients take their meals together, some three or four warders having their food at a separate table, and giving an eye at the same time to their charges. The breakfast for the pauper patients consists of bread and butter, with tea, and a fair allowance of sugar and milk. At dinner, which takes place at 12 o'clock, they have strong vegetable soup, made with plenty of meat, followed by meat, potatoes, and bread. The have also pudding twice a week. Tea, at 5 o'clock, is a repetition of breakfast. There is, indeed, plenty to eat, and any lunatic in fair bodily health usually gets quite fat and hearty under a few months of this diet. I had my meals amongst a select half-dozen of private patients, who paid for their maintenance from 15s to £2 per week. Here we lived like fighting-cocks. There was no stint, and within certain reasonable limits, a patient could obtain any dish he chose to ask for, if the doctor approved. Eor breakfast thero was porridge and milk (in sick cases), tea, bread and butter, chops and steaks. At 11 o'clock there were bowls of beef tea, and at 12 noon there was usually a dinner of soup, roast beef or mutton, potatoes, vegetables, bread, and pudding. Tea was a simple meal of that beverage and bread and butter, but anyone could get cold meat if he wanted ic. I am inclined to think that there is some extravagance and waste in feeding the private patients. There is far more put down on the table than they can possibly eat. The bowls of soup are of very large size, and the plates of meat alone would satisfy the appetite of a hungry ploughman. Thero must be many ' basketsful or fragments' to gather up at the Asylum, and the twenty pigs which are kept at ' the back,' as well as the 10,000 or so of rats

which infest that locality, must have a rare good time of it in consuming the broken meats. Anyhow, both pigs and rats are bursting with fatness. After breakfast, there is an hour or so of sweeping, scrubing, and general putting in order; a detachment of the patients are sent out to work in the grounds, while those who stay in dawdle away the time between meals as best they can. A very, very few, read; one or two play billiards; a good many smoke ; but the majority sit apathetically still and mope. What they think about —if they can think —God only knows. By-and-bve 8 o'clock comes round again ; the day has passed, and the patients are locked up once more. There is something awful to a sane man of active mind and quick imagination in this purely vegetable kind of existence ! But space warns me to close. In another article, I shall have something more to say about the inner life of the Asylum and its afflicted inmates. —Evening Post.