21
contact with the disturbed mother. At Watervliet, the Train and
Treadway fajilies and at Savoy the Lewis family would seem to
offer case studies of this.
Schizophrenia, when it attacks, causes its victims to be unable
to think in a logical way from A to B. It can sneak up and grab
hold and never let go; or it can grab hold for only a short while
and then disappear, never to return. It comes in many shapes,
intensities and styles. Nowadays such victims may be treated
with dopamine, although constant research is producing variants
and new drugs. There are several examples of the "off and on"
spells of the disease. Elizabeth Train at Watervliet in 1835,
"having been deranged for several days," jumped off the porch
roof but recovered physically and apparently mentally since in
1856 she was sent to the North Family to be in charge of the
girls and died in 1865 from cancer of the stomach at the age of
71. Her sister, Azuba, in 1839 had "her first turn of derange-
ment" an was confined to the Second House garret. But in 1852 she
was in a group that visited the Shaker societies in
Massachusetts.
The case of Amy Bennett at New Lebanon would seem to come under
the classification of schizophrenia since she had the delusion
that she was "an awful wicked creature not fit to remain with the
Shakers7': and William Spiller of Olive Branch with his
unconventional behavior is a certain example.
It is often noted that the Shakers on average had a much greater
life expectancy than their contemporaries in the world's people
And this also led them to experience the mental diseases of the
elderly--senility and what today is pinpointed as Alzheimer's.
Thus we can almost certainly designate James Chapman, Elizabeth
Youngs, Thomas Beal, Jonathan Slosson and Jacob Bauer at Water-
vliet; Achsah Gross at Canterbury; Seth Babbit at Harvard; Isaac
Newton Youngs and Sarah Ann Spencer at New Lebanon; Elizabeth
Pierce of Sabbathday Lake; and Benjamin Franklin of Olive Branch.
But certainly their treatment went along with the general
public's manner of treatment, although more kindly. It seems to
have been a last resort to confine persons physically and then
mainly because they had become a danger either to others or
themselves. Seth Babbit's case occurred in the 1820s and is the
only one in which leg irons are mentioned. Others confined at
one time include Elizabeth Barker, Edward Powers, Eunice
Rolbbins, Jonathan Slosson, Azuba Train and Almira Treadway at
Watervliet; and Hannah Pray and two unnamed brothers at Alfred.
In state hospitals for some time were John Damon of Enfield,