Part 47

That the tendency nowadays, even outside of Germany, in the direction of the ideal standard of provision for the insane is a growing one is manifested in all countries by a gradual disintegration of the former huge cloister-like abodes. More asylums are built on the pavilion plan. Many asylums have, as it were, thrown off detached cottages for the better care of certain patients. Some asylums have even established small agricultural colonies a few miles away from the parent plant, like a vine throwing out feelers. What is called the boarding-out system is an effort in a similar direction. Patients suffering from mild forms of insanity are boarded out in families in the country, either upon public or private charge. Gheel is an example of the boarding-out system practised on a large scale. But the ideal system is that of the psychopathic hospital and the colony for the insane.

AUTHORITIES.--Sir J. B. Tuke, _Dictionary of Psychological Medicine_, (London and Philadelphia, 1892); W. P. Letchworth, _The Insane in Foreign Countries_ (New York, 1889); _Care and Treatment of Epileptics_ (New York, 1900); F. Peterson, _Mental Diseases_ (Philadelphia, 1899); "Annual Address to the American Medico-Psychological Association," _Proceedings_ (1899). (F. P.*)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The word for "lunatic" in several other languages has a similar etymology. Cp. Ital. _lunatico_, Span. _alunado_, Gr. [Greek: selêniakos] (epileptic), Ger. _mondsüchtig_.

[2] It has sometimes been stated that this power, which ought clearly, in the interests alike of prisoners and of the public, to be exercised with caution, is in fact exerted in an unduly large number of cases. The following figures, taken from the respective volumes of the _Criminal Judicial Statistics_, show the number of criminal lunatics certified insane before trial. In 1884-1885, out of a total of 938 criminal lunatics, 169 were so certified; in 1885-1886, 149 out of 890; in 1889-1890, 108 out of 926; in 1890-1891, 95 out of 900; in 1894, 78 out of 738; in 1895, 84 out of 757; in 1896, 88 out of 769; in 1897, 85 out of 764; in 1898, 17 out of 209; in 1899, 13 out of 159; in 1900, 12 out of 185; in 1901, 15 out of 205; in 1902, 7 out of 233; in 1903, 11 out of 229.