Visit To Cairo Asylum
156 Art. XIII.?A :Author: A. B. B. Myebs Surgeon, Coldstream Guards.
Visitors to Cairo without a ” friend at court” have little chance of observing what progress has been made in the education of its inhabitants since the accession of the present Viceroy. Some years ago I was enabled to inspect the three then recently erected schools which are now filled with Eastern students, male and female; but in retracing my steps over various public buildings during my last visit to this city, it was with much sorrow that I noticed one class of the people still apparently forgotten?one which, least of all, is able to make itself heard.
After passing through the second dismal portal of a building in the outskirts, you may see in a small courtyard, squatting as closely as possible together, at least in the winter, for the sake of the warmth their single garments cannot alone retain, human beings who were once mixing in the biisy throng of life, but who now it could scarcely be believed retained their humanity, so horrible are they to look upon as they raise their listless eyes on the approach of a stranger, and utter some diabolical jargon to him. Still these are only poor harmless lunatics?men who have mostly destroyed their reason by smoking or eating ” hashish,”* and therefore have a certain amount of freedom allotted to them ; but turn to the left, and then you will see but too plainly liovv the light of civilisation has failed to penetrate within these walls.
On my previous visit in 1863, I remember seeing as if it were but yesterday, so great was the impression made upon me, one dark noisome cell in which at the far end was a man, stark naked, chained to the wall like a dog, but unlike a dog, for he would probably have had a little straw to lie upon, whereas this creature had nothing. On my recent visit another dangerous lunatic was confined in it, but as he was free, I was only allowed to look at him through a little iron grating in the door, by which he received his food during his violent paroxysms. On beholding me his rage was unbounded, and whilst his frenzied eyes half started out of their sockets, he hissed at me through the bars, and then crying out ” Noosrani!” (Christian !) rushed frantically to the other end of his cell and cowered in a corner, as if to conceal himself from my gaze.
Feeling regret at having momentarily added to the tortures of the poor creature, I at once turned away and was taken to another cell. This we entered, and found it occupied by a man who was sitting on a stool with his back turned towards us, whilst drawing on a wall with chalk the figure of a woman in Eastern costume. So absorbed was he in his work?one which possibly was the means of keeping fresh in his enfeebled mind the memory of one he once held dear?that at first he took no notice of us, but on hearing the voice of a stranger he instantly turned round, and seeing me, with one sweep of his arm his labour was blotted out; and then standing up defiantly before me, he exclaimed in Arabic, ” Christian, what right have you to come here to see me thus ? “
So even in their very madness they show the instinctive hatred of the Mahomedan for the Christian.
Passing to the female side of this asylum there is not much fault to be found with the appearance of the patients who occupy beds in the large ward, or the manner in which they are apparently treated. Here I was not allowed to approach the cells sufficiently near to look through the small gratings in the doors, and probably I thus escaped a too revolting sight, judging by the cries that issued from one of these in which three or more lunatics were confined together.
As we passed this cell, however, I observed that they had succeeded in forcing slightly open the bottom of the locked door, and through the chink thus made I saw stretched out to the utmost extent, their naked withered hands and arms, with which they clutched at the air as if in appeal foi mercy or for food. It was a ghastly sight, and I turned from it with a shudder, feeling sure that the convulsive movement of those living skeleton fingers would be a picture indelibly impressed upon my mind… .
The average number of male patients m this asylum is about 125, and of females 65 and the mortality is about one per month. On my first visit I was told that great improve- ments were about to be made in the treatment of these lunatics, and so I am again informed. Let us hope that the statement on this occasion may be one not altogether devoid of truth.
February 1877.
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