grimages
made for the cure of the insane. A typical instance is to be found at
the shrine of St. Dympna in Belgium. Many persons in various stages
and differing forms of mental derangement were accustomed to go or be
taken to the shrine of this Irish girl missionary, whose martyrdom had
so elevated her in the estimation of the people of the neighborhood
that they thought her tomb worthy of special reverence. The sufferers
who journeyed thither frequently lingered for some time in order to
invoke the aid of the Saint, and, if possible, secure her intercession
for the relief of their {377} ailments. Many of them were found to get
along better in the quiet of the little village than they had done in
their homes, and as they were simply quartered among the people of the
village, their friends were able for a trifling pecuniary
consideration to secure their maintenance there for an indefinite
period, in the hope that what the Saint had not granted at the
beginning might be obtained by more assiduous devotion at her shrine.
At first the friends probably intended to come back and take the
patients away, but after a time, finding that they got along so well
near the shrine, they gradually learned to leave them there entirely.
Thus originated the famous insane colony at Gheel which has in recent
years been the subject of more attention on the part of alienists the
world over than almost any other therapeutic method of our time. This
medieval invention of caring for the non-violent insane, especially
those of low grades of intelligence, in the midst of small families,
where none of the cares of life burden them and where they have
occupation of mind and body and certain human interests, such as might
appeal to their weakened intelligence, is probably the ideal method of
caring for such patients. Certain it is that it is much better than
the large institutional system, the invention of succeeding centuries,
from which we are now trying to get away as fast and as far as
possible.

The Gheel mode of caring for the insane is really the colony system
that is now universally recognized as the most favorable mode of
treatment for these patients. It seems not unlikely that there was
much more of this practice during the Middle Ages in Europe than we
have any idea of.

With regard to the serious accusations so often made {378} against the
people of the Middle Ages for their cruelty to the insane, not much
apology will be needed by thos