| Guislain wrote about his visit to the Ospedale San Niccolò on pages 161-162 of his Lettres Médicales sur l'Italie avec Quelques Renseignements sur la Suisse: Résumé d'un Voyage fait en 1838, Adressé à la Société de Médecine de Gand (F. & E. Gyselynck : Ghent 1840). Guislain called the Ospedale "l’établissement des Aliénés" without mentioning its true name. He saw it only from the outside, and did not meet the physician in charge of the hospital, Dr M. Tonini. However, he reported that the complex had room for almost one hundred mental patients and accommodates mostly men. He regarded the building of three stories as not fit for its purpose, but acknowledged the more positive assessments of M. Brière de Boismont and M.M. Gualandi. Gualandi, on Guislain’s account, is especially impressed by the elegance of the construction. Guislain relied on these accounts for a description of the interior arrangements of the hospital. Agitated male and female patients apparently occupied the first floor, calm male patients the second floor, and calm female patients the third floor. The building was reported to be clean and airy, the doors and windows opening towards the outside. Guislain summarizes the extensive descriptions provided by Boismont and Gualandi of patient cells and latrines. |
