years, before they were healed; while others were never healed at all. And while waiting they had to be taken care of. At first the innocents, as Saint Dympna's protégés are called, were all lodged in little huts, or caves, around the church; but, as the fame of Gheel spread abroad, they increased in number, and it became necessary to make other arrangements. They were then boarded out with the peasants THERE is nothing in the appearance of Gheel to distinguish it from other Flemish towns. It has the same quaint, Rip van Winklish air as its living in the village; and there were neighbors, and is just as trim and well-so many of them, at length, that every ordered as they are. In its one long family had its innocent. street, snug little white houses stand As time passed, people lost their facing each other, each in its own faith in Saint Dympna; none the less garden, all aglow in summer with tu- they still continued to send patients to lips and roses. Evidently the people Gheel; for the natives of that district who live there are a prosperous com- had developed a marvellous skill in munity, for there is not a sign of pov-| dealing with the insane. The Gheelois erty about the place; one may walk are as a rule a singularly simplethrough the whole district without minded, matter-of-fact race, not burmeeting a single beggar. If there are no beggars, there are, however, no "loafers" either; every one is hard at work, and with his hands too as a rule. Men, women, and children alike, seem to have regular duties to do, and to be bent on doing them. They go about their work in such an orderly, businesslike fashion that, while watching them, it is hard to realize that Gheel is the headquarters of a colony for lunatics. Yet such it is, and has been for more than a thousand years. dened with too much intellect, perhaps, but with plenty of sound common sense. They have placid, easy-going tempers, too, that nothing seems able to disturb, and a patience that knows neither bound nor limit. They are simply peasants, many of them, uneducated and somewhat rough in their ways; yet their tact, in all that concerns their patients, is exquisite. They have quite a store of quaintly worded precepts and warnings, which have been handed down to them from time In very early days Gheel seems to immemorial, to guide them in their have been a kind of Lourdes. A cer- treatment of these sufferers; not that tain Saint Dympna who lies buried they stand in need of any such aid, for there an Irishwoman by the way they seem to know instinctively what was supposed to have les faibles to say and do. From generation to d'esprit under her special protection. It was the custom, therefore, throughout the Netherlands, for persons who had insane relatives to take them to her tomb, and there offer special prayers to her for their recovery. If tradition is to be relied upon, the saint was by no means loth to give proof of her beneficent power; and wonderful stories are told of the way in which she used to restore reason to those who had lost it. Still, even in those times, miracles were not wrought every day. Some of the sufferers who went to Gheel had to wait for months, nay generation they have passed their lives sur Up to 1858 Gheel was managed in a very primitive fashion, and the Gheelois had practically a free hand in dealing with their charges. But in that year the colony was completely reorganized and placed under the direc tion of a commission, on which the of the doctors, who see that they do State and the medical faculty are rep- their duty to their charges, and that resented. No change was made, they give them proper food and treat however, in the system of treatment them with kindness. They are carepractised there; that is very much fully classified, for most of them are the same to-day as it was hundreds specialists, with particular skill in dealof years ago. The Gheelois system is ing with some one form of insanity. simple in the extreme; the peculiarity Some of them are persons in quite of it consists in allowing the patients comfortable circumstances, who prothe greatest possible amount of free-vide their pensionnaires with a certain dom compatible with their safety, and amount of luxury; while others have in talking to them and treating them in nothing much to offer theirs beyond a all respects as if they were sane. The seat by a kitchen fire and plain, wholecolony, which is now about thirty some fare. The charges for board, miles in circumference, is divided into lodging, etc., range from about six some half-dozen districts, each of thousand francs a year to six hundred which is under the care of a special francs; but a certain number of padoctor and a keeper, who are responsi- tients are there on nominal terms. A ble for it to the chief physician. The keeper must every day see and report on each patient living in his district. So far as possible, sufferers from the same form of mania are placed in the same district. For instance, there is one reserved exclusively for epileptics. Only patients who are quiet and perfectly harmless are lodged in Gheel itself; the more violent are sent to the outlying hamlets. When a patient arrives in Gheel he is lodged, in the first instance, at the Asyl Patronal, a large building which was erected in 1858, and serves as the headquarters of the colony. There his condition is carefully studied by the resident doctors. If he is found to be suffering from suicidal or homicidal mania, he is promptly sent back to his friends; for these are forms of madness with which the Gheelois do not attempt to cope. The length of time the innocents stay in the Asyl depends entirely on their condition; for they are always boarded out as soon as ever, in the opinion of the doctors, this can be done with safety. It is rarely found necessary to detain them there more than a few weeks. The greatest care is taken to insure that each one of them is placed in a family where his surroundings will be congenial to his tastes. The nourriciers, as the Gheelois who take charge of the innocents are called, are now all under the direct supervision nourricier, as a rule, receives only one innocent into his family; some of them, however, have two or three. If, as happens sometimes, though not very often, a patient does not "take" to his nourricier - if he does not seem to feel at home in his house and to be ou friendly terms with all the members of the family-he is at once removed elsewhere. It is the custom in Gheel, when an innocent takes up his abode with his nourricier, to welcome him as if he were a near relative, and to arrange some little festivity in his honor. He is at once installed in the most comfortable seat, and takes his place as a member of the family. He passes all his time with them, eating with them, and working with them too, digging, gardening, or doing whatever they do. Strong pressure is brought to bear on him to induce him to work, not by fits and starts, but regularly, for a fixed number of hours every day; for in steady industry lies his best chance of recovering his reason. It is found in the majority of cases that the harder he works, the quieter and saner he becomes. Some of the patients receive regular wages for their labor, in money sometimes, though more often in tobacco and kindred luxuries if they are men, and, if women, in articles of dress which, to their intense delight, they themselves are allowed to choose and pay for. In the great majority of cases no restraint whatever is placed on the actions of an innocent, when once he is boarded out. So far as he knows, he is perfectly free to go where he will, and do what he chooses. He may turn into the village iuu, if he wish, and order his wine or his beer; and, providing he have money in hand, he will be served just as any other customer. If he ask for a second glass, some little difficulty may arise, it is true. The landlord will then probably appear upon the scene, and explain, with many courteous apologies, that his supply of wine or beer, as the case may be, has run short. He is expecting more in, of course, but for the moment he has not a single drop in the place good enough to set before so honored a guest. The innocent may go to the railway station, too, and take a ticket; but he will always find that there is no vacant place in the trains that are running that day. For the whole population, from the highest to the lowest, are in the secret, and do their best to keep up the delusion among these unfortunate people that they are as free as their fellows. But, little as the patients know it, a very careful watch is kept on their proceedings. They have no idea, of course, that the man who saunters about among them, chatting as a good comrade with each in turn, is a keeper who is noting every change in their mood. Nor do the majority of them ever suspect that the persistence with which their nourriciers seek their society is due to anything but personal regard. It is a very rare thing, however, for an innocent at Gheel even to attempt to escape; they are much too comfortable where they are to have any wish to go elsewhere. Oddly enough, although there are nearly two thousand lunatics living at Gheel, it is a most unusual occurrence for any act of violence to be committed there. This is the more remarkable as, with the exception of those subjected to special restraint-only some two per cent. of the whole- they have as often as not knives in their posses as sion, and such dangerous tools scythes and hatchets ready at hand. So far, however, as one can judge, the desire to use them for any unlawful purpose never enters their minds. The air of the place seems to have a soothing effect on their nerves. Some of those who, on their arrival at the Asyl, are raving, become at the end of a week or two quite amenable to the gentle discipline that is in force there. The fact of their being treated as if they were sane seems to rouse their amour propre; they feel as if they had a reputation for intelligence to maintain. Sometimes when they think a paroxysm is coming on, they will make the most pathetic efforts to ward it off; and, if they find it is too strong for them, they will rush away to some solitary place where, as they believe, they can scream and struggle unobserved. Then when the attack is past, they will return home again trying hard to look as if nothing had happened. This enlisting, as it were, of the sufferers themselves as combatants against their disease, has often an important bearing on their recovery. Every effort they make to control themselves increases their chances of becoming saue. large number of very remarkable cures have been effected at Gheel. A It Children play an important rôle in the colony, for it is found that, in some respects, they make better keepers of the insane than their elders. Gheelois children, it must be remembered, are not quite as other children; for, as they have grown up in the company of innocents, they are in perfect sympathy with them upon most points. is no unusual thing to see a great strong man talking away in the most confidential strain to a mere child his nourricier's little son, perhaps, who has been told off to take charge of him. The two are hail fellowwell-met, and the best of friends, for there is not enough difference between them intellectually to raise up barriers. Even the more violent of the lunatics will listen quite patiently to anything a child says to him, and will almost invariably do what it wishes. If a patient shows signs of restlessness, and seems | tion more self-important than sane men on the verge of an outbreak, one of the and women, more inclined to attach nourricier's favorite devices for sooth-weight to their own opinions. Even ing him is to place a baby in his arms the gentlest and humblest among and ask him to take care of it. At them resent contradiction as if it were Gheel a lunatic was never known to a personal insult. This is, perhaps, injure a little child. after all, but natural, for many of them Infinite trouble is taken to make life are firmly convinced that they are very run smoothly and quietly for these high and mighty personages - personinnocents, and to guard them from ages whom in real life few would venall forms of unwholesome excitement. ture to contradict. Never were there At the same time many simple pleas- so many notable individuals - kings, ures and amusements are provided for generals, statesmen, millionaires livtheir benefit. They are always present ing together in one little town as at at any entertainment their nourriciers Gheel. It is startling, to say the least may give family fêtes, Christmas of it, to hear a quiet, intelligent-looking parties, picnics, etc.—and upon such gentleman describing, in the calmest occasions comport themselves, as a tone in the world, how he won Waterrule, with the most edifying dignity loo, delivered Italy, or outwitted Bisand propriety. A surprisingly large marck. One patient believed firmly. number of them have a decided talent that he was the moon, aud could never for music, and this they are given the be induced to go out of doors until opportunity of cultivating. There is a after sunset; another was sure that the Philharmonic Society in the colony, responsibility for the management of and, although most of its members are the affairs of a nation rested on his more or less insane, they practise regu-shoulders; while there are many who larly and diligently, and give concerts hold firmly that they are in the possesfrom time to time and by no means sion of secrets by which, if they had bad ones either. Then, church-going but a free hand, they could make right is an unfailing source of delight to all that is wrong in this world. many of them, especially on high cere- A chance visitor will always find in a mony days, when there are plenty of colony for lunatics much that is terribly lights and flowers on the altar, and depressing; to him even these innogood music. There is something cents at Gheel will seem but a pitiable strangely pathetic then in the passion- set. This, however, is far from being ate fervor with which they throw the view they themselves take of their themselves into the services; their condition. Some of them, it is true, voices tremble with emotion as they join in the prayers, and they seem for the time quite unconscious of what is passing around them. are subject from time to time to fits of the deepest gloom, but the majority are quite cheerful; not only are they fairly content with their lot, but they eviThe great majority of the Gheel dently think life well worth living. At lunatics are, in appearance, quite re-every turn there are hearty laughs to markably sane; the only noticeable be heard, and bright, happy faces to be difference between them and their fel- seen, among the colonists at Gheel. lows is that their eyes are just a touch brighter, and their hands more nervous. In manner, too, they are on the whole singularly calm and quiet. One might live with many of them for days, in fact, without ever discovering that they were not as other men. By degrees, however, certain little peculiarities come to the fore; for one thing, these people are almost without excep From Chambers' Journal. ELECTRICITY FROM RUBBISH. THE satisfactory disposal of the rubbish and refuse of our large towns has for years occupied the close attention of engineers and sanitarians alike, and various modes of dealing with the problem have been advocated and carried into practice; whilst the statement furuished by reliable statistics that London alone produces no fewer than a million and a half tons of refuse per annum, affords our readers some adequate idea of the magnitude and importance of the difficulty to be grappled with by local and municipal bodies. velocity of air through the furnace bars, and rapid combustion and intense heat in the furnaces themselves. A destructor erected on the Livét system is now in operation at Halifax, in Yorkshire, and produces, from the combustion of refuse, electric current sufficient for some two thousand candlepower arc lamps, and a search-light of twenty-five thousand candle-power. Conveyance of the refuse to the sea It is, of course, unnecessary to point has been practised with success; but out how widely diverse is the composisuch mode is obviously too costly for tion of town refuse; its constituents towns not on the seaboard; and under ashes, vegetable refuse, tins, cans, old these circumstances, the adoption of boots, paper, etc., and the million items cremators, in which the rubbish is which find their way sooner or later to wholly consumed by fire, has come the dust-heap are well known to more and more into favor; so that at every oue; and obviously any attempt the present moment the majority of to put a value on the heat-producing the principal cities are either construct- capabilities of rubbish must be a little ing, or about to construct, the new refuse cremator. Much heat is necessarily evolved in the destruction of the refuse; and the idea is now gaining ground that such heat may be largely and advantageously utilized in the production of steam power and electricity, instead of being permitted to run to waste. The production of a furnace suitable for the most economical combustion of all kinds of refuse has necessarily required much time and skill; and it was only after twenty-five years of close application to the problem that the late M. Fountain de Livét, a French engineer, succeeded in securing a powerful natural draught in furnaces without artificial means, and in consuming rubbish without smoke or noxious fumes of any kind. Without entering into the minutiae of M. Livét's invention, it may suffice to state that the latest and most approved generator of steam from refuse consists of three cylinders, two of which are fitted with internal fire-grates and flues; whilst the third one, placed centrally above, is kept about half full of water, and acts as a steam-chest. The specialty of the furnace is the adaptation of such form of flue as will utilize the increasing density or weight of the gases generated as they travel towards the chimney, thus inducing a high vague in dealing with the subject generally. Taking, however, a rough average of the results obtained, an ordinary sample of town refuse is pronounced by experts to be equivalent to about one-third or one-fifth its weight in coal-namely, from three to five pounds of refuse will generate as much heat as one pound of coal; whilst the refuse after consumption is found to be a clean, massive, metallic clinker, well fitted for road material; or, after being ground up, for making mortar. It is, of course, hardly necessary to add one word of caution in regard to the invention now under consideration. It is not to be assumed that because rubbish is burnt, the electricity necessarily costs absolutely nothing; the cost of plant, distribution of power, and many other expenses, must not be lost sight of, to say nothing of the labor expended in collecting the refuse. Allowing, however, for all this, it is quite clear that an invention which rids the community of a great nuisance, and does so without creating a further oue in the shape of noxious fumes and smoke, and at the same time turns to good account the heat generated, must confer benefits on the community at large; and that the keen interest aroused in the new adaptation is amply warranted by the sound economic principles on which it is based. |