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some time, attended her. He was surprised to observe, as the fever advanced, a development of the mental powers. During that period of the fever when others were delirious, this patient was entirely rational. She recognised, in the face of her medical attendant, the son of her old master, whom she had known so many years before; and she related many circumstances respecting his family, and others, which had happened to herself in her earlier days. But alas! it was only the gleam of reason; as the fever abated, clouds again enveloped her mind. She sunk into her former deplorable state, and remained in it till her death, which happened a few years afterwards."

Although this case must be considered as very extraordinary, the records of medicine are not wanting in instances of that kind of succession and alternation of mental and bodily disorder to which we have above referred, and of which the example just narrated is but a remarkable and forcible illustration. Dropsical and pulmonary affections have been seen to yield, in order to make way, in a manner, for the introduction of insanity; while this last has been expelled, in its turn, by the supervention and return of the original complaint. There is another circumstance, also, which is common to mental alienations, and which, indeed, is of so frequent occurrence, as to have been often noticed by many persons who were not professional observers; we allude to that sudden and transient restoration of the intellectual faculties, which not unfrequently immediately precedes bodily dissolution. After the mind has, to all appearance, been for years extinct, it bursts out from its corporal confinement, and casts a parting glance at the surrounding

scene.

These facts demonstrate a frequent connexion between ailments of the body, and of the mind, as intimate as it is inscrutable; and serve to show that the human frame may be subject to such varieties of condition as to be productive of mental hallucination, although the precise nature of such state shall elude every research of the pathologist. As we are ignorant, then, of the nature, we must also be ignorant of the extent and probable duration of the morbid change. When, therefore, we find, as in some of the publications before us, individuals asserting with confidence the curable nature of insanity, and hinting,

that had this and that patient been under their care, the hallucinations would have disappeared, we cannot avoid regarding their assertions and intimations, as partaking in a large measure of empirical presumption. Which among them could have anticipated the circumstances and temporary cure of the idiotic girl above referred to? and who is there that could unravel the intricacies of the case by any ascertained physiological principle?

But there is another consideration, and it is one of a very momentous and imperative nature, which has still more to do with the late investigation; it is this-whether, even in cases of incurable lunacy, it be not possible to effect by conciliation and kindness, what has hitherto been often essayed to be done by coercion and restraint?-Is a madman out of the pale of humanity?—Is he, on account of the suspension of reason, to be treated as if the rational faculty were not obscured, but extinct? To these most important queries such replies have been made as to implicate, in their tendency, the conduct and character of several receptacles for the insane; it appeared, therefore to be the duty of an enlightened legislature to interfere further in behalf of this most afflicted portion of the human race. That interference, as we have above observed, has been candidly, rationally, and humanely made, and the publications before us are some of its consequences.

The legislature has had, however, a still further object in view, than that of securing an appropriate treatment, and as much comfort as is consistent with their situations, to those who are already and properly confined in consequence of mental disorder. Its aim has been directed towards placing a more effectual barrier, than the act already in force has been found to provide, against the commission of the enormous crime of unnecessary confinement; a crime which, to the eternal disgrace of human nature, has not only been in many instances conceived, but actually committed.

We shall not detain our readers with any very copious extracts from the published reports of the committee of investiga, tion, especially as they have already been before the public in the prints of the day. We shall therefore confine ourselves to the selection of one or two examinations, which will serve to

show to those who may not hitherto have had their attention drawn to the subject, the great good that has already been effected by the business having been brought before the consideration of Parliament. The honourable Henry Grey Bennet, himself a member of the committee, presents to it the following evidence:

"I visited Bethlem some years ago, and was then very much struck with the condition in which the patients were; there appeared to me to be the greatest coercion in general use; numbers were confined to the wall, fastened to benches and tables, and many of the patients were almost in a state of nudity: I visited it again last year in company with Mr. Wakefield, Mr. Lambton, and one or two other gentlemen; I found not so many patients in the same state of nakedness and restraint as at my last visit, but, in the women's wards up stairs, there were many of those unfortunate people chained to the wall in a small room, some of whom had been so chained for years during the day; the smell and dirt of the room were in the highest degree offensive; amongst those persons was a woman of the name of Stone, who was formerly a governess in a respectable family, evidently a person of some accomplishments, who was chained to the wall, though she did not appear to be at that time or was stated ever to have been a furious maniac. There was also a woman confined in a cell, chained to the wall at the end of the gallery; she had been so confined for several years, was in a state of furious agitation, and her voice and cries could be heard in all that part of the hospital. I saw also Norris; the iron apparatus in which he had been confined was then removed; but the chains which fastened the neck of the patient to the iron stanchion as well as the leg-lock, were still used.

"Norris stated, that he was fully aware he was a dangerous person; that he should be sorry to be permitted to walk unmanacled in the gallery; but if he could be prevented from doing others any mischief, which, if he was not provoked he should not attempt to do, he should consider the permission of taking that exercise a great indulgence; he added also, that he had made repeated complaints against the mode of confinement in which he had been for so many years; but that he was

now treated like a Christian, and that he felt himself quite comfortable, He particularly alluded to the pleasure he felt in being able to sit down on the edge of his bed; he was employed in reading the newspaper, and he asked me many questions on the subject of politics, in which he appeared to take the greatest interest. I visited Bethlem, on the 27th of May last, in company with other members of the House of Commons, Lord Lascelles, Mr. William Smith, Mr. Duncombe, Mr. Frankland Lewis, and Mr. Sturges Bourne. The change that had taken place in the appearance of the patients in the Hospital was most striking; on the men's side, no man was chained to the wall; only one was in bed, and he was ill; the patients were mostly walking about in the gallery, and the whole hospital was clean and sweet. On the women's side, two only, when we entered the hospital, were chained by the hand. Miss Stone, who had been confined in the hospital for several years, three of which she had been chained during day-time to the wall, wrapped up in a flannel gown, was sitting by the fire dressed like a woman, employed in needle-work, and tolerably rational; she appeared cheerful, and contented, and most grateful to the matron, who accompanied us during our visit, for the change which had taken place in her situation."

"The woman who was confined at the end of the gallery the year before, in that violent state of irritation above mentioned, was now released, and was walking about the gallery, apparently tranquil; she repeatedly thanked the matron for her kindness, and said it was owing to that kindness that she was in the composed and comfortable state in which we found her. I have no doubt that the change which is so visible in the condition of the hospital, and in the mental improvement of the patients, has arisen from the different treatment that they have received from the new steward, Mr. Wallet, and the new matron, Mrs. Forbes. To any one who remembered the apparent neglect with which, the preceding year, these unfortunate persons were treated, this change in their condition was most consolatory."

In answer to a further question from the committee, whether he did not consider the iron apparatus worn by Norris to be unnecessarily heavy, Mr. Bennet replies,

"From what I have seen of furious maniacs in other hos

pitals and places of confinement, I should have no hesitation in saying that it was a mode of restraint unnecessary and unwarranted. It has always appeared to me (he adds) from what I have seen of Bethlem, that the restraint was used there more from feelings of revenge than for purposes of medical cure."

The above evidence is a document of too unequivocal a nature, which establishes the fact that much abuse has existed; it serves at the same time to prove, beyond the possibility of dispute, that much may be done, with safety to the attendant and advantage to the patient, by kindness and conciliatory treatment. The only remaining inquiries then, at issue, are, by what means this treatment can be best secured to the unhappy sufferers under mental derangement; and what are the best measures to which the legislature can have recourse in order to prevent the practice of confining individuals upon groundless and false pretences.

It was a natural order of proceeding, in reference to the first particular, to establish an inquisition into the condition and usages of those several receptacles for the insane, that were already in existence; and by collating and contrasting their respective advantages and disadvantages, to come to such conclusions as should serve for a guide to future proceedings. Accordingly, the printed reports exhibit the interior of a great number of lunatic asylums, in some of which, as in the larger and more public establishments, were unveiled the most shocking mismanagement and the most culpable neglect. It is, however, gratifying to learn, from the accounts of others, that a conscientious skill and persevering humanity, were employed to effect one of the most momentous objects that can engage the energies of man. An account of a well-regulated establishment, called the Retreat, near York, instituted and conducted by the Society of Friends, has already been published, and our readers will hear with great satisfaction that this asylum has many rivals both in exterior and internal advantages.

Those institutions appear to be the most effectual in promoting the well-being of their inmates, in which attention is given to the following particulars. A due separation and classification of the patients according to their sex, their circum

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