Dorothea Lynde Dix

On Behalf of the Insane Poor: Selected Reports Dorothea Lynde Dix

On Behalf of the Insane Poor was originally published in 1973. These are selected historical reports on behalf of the insane poor. In D. L. Dix?s 1843 plea to the Massachusetts Legislature she said, ?I tell what I have seen ? painful and shocking as the details often are ? that from them you may feel more deeply the imperative obligation which lies upon you to prevent the possibility of a repetition or continuance of such outrages upon humanity. I proceed, Gentlemen, briefly to call your attention to the present state of insane persons confined withing this Commonwealth, in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens! Chained, naked , beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience.?