History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

332 HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
of putting in operation needed mechanical appli-
ances. He early gave attention to the heating and
ventilating of the buildings, and devised wood-
burning furnacesj by which tlie desired temperature
was obtained from small volumes of highly heated
air. His plan was put in successful operation, and
was shortly afterwards used in the Capitol at Washington.
To good natural endowments Dr. Wyman
had added an academic education, a training of
many years in the general practice of his profession,
and a judgment formed from a close and varied
acquaintance with otlier minds ; and at the begin-
ning of his connection with the Asylum his life
had been matured by the experience of forty years.
To his wisdom and skill he united unwearied de-
votion to all the interests and requirements of the
institution, and a fidelity which extended to the
lesser as well as to the greater and more showy duties
of his station. For fourteen years, or till his health
broke down, he had been absent but five nights
from his charge. He was averse to ostentation,
and to such a degree that it is doubtful whether he
gave due publicity to the results of his experience,
which might have strengthened the hands of others
about entering this field of labor, and served to
increase the reputation and usefulness of the insti-
tution. Chief among his attributes was a sterling
integrity and a moral grandeur before which the
charges and assaults to which such institutions are
• ever unavoidably liable fell harmless. The same
qualities which enabled him to proceed patiently
day by day, laying the foundations of an intelligent
and humane treatment of lunacy in New England,
that did not permit him to build or alter without a
wise forethought, or to act without a well-matured
and, as experience has shown, generally a just rea-
son, will preserve his name fresh in the list of those
who have rendered invaluable services for the
amelioration of tlie insane in this country.
On the rctiiviiiciit of Dr. Wyman, Dr. Phineas
G. Lee, who had been the assistant for a year, was
elected to the sui)erintendency, and at once began
a course of treatment in some respects opposite
to that previously pursued. Dr. Wyman had re-
garded insanity as an inlhimmalion. Dr. Lee believed
it to be an irritation, and curable in all cases, lie
brought into greater prominence the moral agencies
begun by his pn^deccssor. Idleness was deemed a'
great evil, and all the imnates were souglit (o be
provided with some occu])atioii, it n^l (if a useful,
then of a diverting, nature. All ihi' km.wii vari-
eties of amusement were aihiptcd, which should
eft'ectually shut out all trains of diseased thought.
In the midst of this experiment Dr. Lee died.
Although the indulgence in rational amusements
and the establishment of cheerful surroundings
are relied upon at the present day as the chief items
of treatment, under the light of added experi-
ence it is doubtful whether the extreme measures
adopted by Dr. Lee could have been long carried
out unmodified.
Dr. Lee was born in New Britain, Comiecticnt,
in 1808. After a service under Dr. Todd at the
retreat at Hartford, in 1834 he became the assist-
ant of Dr. AVyman, and at the expiration of a
faithful and active service of two years at the Asylum
he yielded his life in the midst of his chosen
work, dying October 29, 1836, of nervous exhaus-
tion brought on by his constant and fatiguing
labors. Dr. Lee was of a cheerful temperament,
devoted and enthusiastic in the pursuit of his call-
ing, and possessed a wonderful control over his
patients. The purity of his character and the
strength and fervor of his religious convictions
endeared him to his many friends, and the energy
and skill displayed in the care for his unfortunate
charge made his decease — at the early age of
twenty-eight — an event universally to be deplored
by the friends of the institution. Under the di-
rection of Dr. Lee one hundred and eighty-nine
patients were received.
Dr. Luther V. Bell, of Derry, New Hampshire,
was elected his successor in December, 1836, and
pursued with some modifications the treatment of
his predecessor. In 1836 the grounds were enlarged
by the addition of six acres, and work was begun
to extend the female wing by a similar addition to
that upon the east side. The new wards, com-
pleted in 1838, were erected with the money of
Miss Belknap, and perpetuated the memory of this
benefactress. In 1851 Cochituate water was in-
troduced into the A.^lum along the line of the
Lowell Railroad. lii 1850 William Appletou
donated S 20,000 for the erection of two buildings
for the accommodation of a class of patients who
had been accustomed to a more luxurious style of
living tlinu rmdd l)e furnished in the older apart-
ments. During tlic administration of Dr. Bell
the class of occupants at (he Asylum gradually became
changed, by the tacit demand of the public,
for an institution more particularly devoted to the
care of the wealthier class. This change had come
about naturally by the more general provision for the
insmc made bv tlie erection of state institutions.