chained by the arm or the leg to the wall in such a manner as only to allow them to stand up by the bench fixed to the wall, or to sit on it. They had neither stock ings nor shoes, and their only covering at best was a blanket-gown, without fastening. Some were offensive in the highest degree; and with those were associated others capable of rational conversation, refined and accomplished, with all their rational powers perfect, except, perhaps, on a single point. Esquirol gives a picture of a man named Norris, in illustration of what he found at Bethlem. His keeper was afraid of him, and so he invented a torture to suit the case. A stout iron ring was riveted round the patient's neck, and a short chain passed to a ring, made to slide up and down an upright iron bar, inserted into the wall; a stout iron bar, two inches wide, was also inserted round his body, and on each side of his arms so as to pinion them to his body. He could not move a step, he could not lie, except on his back. Thus he lived for twelve years without change, without exercise, without fresh air, without a sight of the blue heavens or the green earth, till stars and flowers were unknown and unremembered. Yet during much of this time he was perfectly rational. Nothing can more powerfully illustrate the hardening effect of fear, custom, and irresponsible power, than the fact that the authorities of the hospital approved of this outrageous violence to this innocent man. Even physicians witnessed this state of things, day after day, for years, and felt no occasion to complain. Does not such a fact justify the extremest jealousy of admitting any pretext for the use of me chanical restraints, now that we know that they are not necessary? Yet even now, after all the experience of Hanwell, there is a fear of casting off fetters, and substituting vigilance. Handcuffs, and chains, and straight-waistcoats are, in short, cheaper than skilled attendants; so the system of non-restraint is likely to be condemned by certain farmers of the insane. Of course, iron helps can only be advocated moderately. But if human hands and feet are once more to be left to the pressure of chains and the will of the keeper, who shall say that pity and kindness will not be dispensed with? The Christian plan of treatment having been found best, why recur to any other? No other plan has succeeded; and we wish to preserve for others the method on which we should wish to be treated ourselves, should loss of reason leave us at the mercy of attendants and physicians. Whether the Hanwell system of treatment was adopted from Christian principles, or only because it was the most sensible and scientific, it is a fact that, being the mode commending itself to good sense, it proves also to be precisely such as Christian intelligence would prescribe; for the spirit of true science is coïncident with that of all truth, and seeing what is, and what ought to be, it seeks to follow the Divine method, and, honestly using Divine means, succeeds in a Divine manner. Hence the joy and refreshment of reading how the happy results of the non-restraint system are brought about. It is nothing more nor less than curing by kindness doing right in the gentlest possible manner. Several of the cases recorded by Dr. Conolly recall that teaching case given in the New Testament to illustrate the love that casts out fear. A poor maniac had been bound and probably beaten by his friends. They had good reason to be afraid of him. They suffered him to burst his bonds. He fled from them, and preferred to live naked amongst the cavern-tombs, torturing himself, and terrifying all who approached him, until, on a certain day, one who knew him well came near enough to speak to him. The maniac thought this friend was coming to torment him; but, no; the words of kindest pity fell upon his ear, and a miracle was wrought. That voice-that gentle voice --had in it the authority of heaven; there was a feeling in the words then uttered that bade the possessing demons, named Legion, to go forth to their own place with swine, and to leave the poor lunatic to be clothed, and sit, in a right mind, at Jesus's feet. This is our pattern case; and it teaches us to meet violence, suspicion, and the insanity of every ill-temper, by a determination not to be afraid to do good to the best of our ability, though against the will that we would win, and even in spite of our own hearts. Now, take the case of a female patient, admitted into Hanwell. (Page 36.) She is violent and frantic-she dreads some impending punishment: she is to be cut in pieces or burned alive; and this for crimes of which she imagines herself accused. With these impressions, her thoughts are bent on suicide, as an expia tion, or as a means of escape from suffering. She is immediately released from every ligature, and bond, and fetter. She is surprised at this procedure- the effect is a speedy tranquillity. But suspicion still lingers in the mind. The patient is taken to the bath-room, and, for the first time, has the comfort of a warm bath; and she expresses remarkable satisfaction. Now, clean and comfortably clothed, she is led to the day-room, and offered inviting food. All the simple furniture of the table is better than in her miserable, struggling life she has ever known. Her looks express the change that has come over the spirit of her dream, and she can scarcely be recognized as the poor, livid wretch, admitted only an hour since. The cure has commenced; but still delusion, anger, fear, so occupy her mind, that the kindest words fail to console. But the attendants limit their interference to the necessities of the case, and take care not to thwart every fidgetty impulse; and so the irritation of the brain gradually wears away, until at length the sufferer becomes capable of fully appreciating the kindness that surrounds her, and her asylum is to her a blessed place. Dr. Conolly states that he [December, ened in restraints, disappears amongst the comforts of their new and better abode."-Page 50. The great object is to calm the troubled spirits of the insane, and to this end every thing should be done regularly and quietly, under the supervision of a physician that will condescend to details, and do all in his power to obtain good-tempered and active attendants-Christian helps, such as manifest the fruits of the Spirit-and to keep them so. Having in his mind a comprehensive system of treatment, he deems nothing which forms a part of it beneath his attention; and on the same principle, that he would study to keep a consumptive or an asthmatic patient in an unirritating atmosphere, so would he, while employing every prophylactic and curative appliance, especially endeavor to preserve the insane patient from every influence that can further excite the brain, and to surround him with such as, soothing both body and mind, may favor rest and promote recovery. In nothing is the value of medical science more manifest than in the treatment of such cases; and if our knowledge of physiology, in relation to the mad, be still far below what it ought to be amongst the "Has repeatedly known private patients, relicensed guardians of health, it is a matceived from some of the worst old-fashioned es- edied as speedly as possible. The means ter to be greatly deplored, and to be remtablishments, reported to be incurably dirty, violent, or dangerous; the true explanation be- suited to the prevention and cure of bodiing, that such patients had been kept much in ly disorder are in keeping with those best bed, often in darkness, having neither a due fitted to prevent and ameliorate the malasupply of good food, nor a proper change of dress. dies of the mind, and it is a Christian duty In these circumstances, they become fretful, ne- for every one who can, to understand the gligent of cleanliness, reckless and often violent. nature of those means; but for a medical Amidst the wildness of madness, they are still, to a certain extent, sensible of their degraded man to be ignorant of the best management position; and every feeling is concentrated into of so prevalent and terrible a malady, is a hatred of every body about them or connected proof of an awful dereliction, for which with them. An officer of rank, in a distinguish- our colleges should be made accountable. ed cavalry regiment, came to an asylum with They ought to demand proofs that all canwhich I was acquainted, from one in which a didates for medical degrees have familiarmore than commonly obstinate attachment to ized themselves with the clinical instrucrestraints had been maintained. His whole tion of the most successful and intelligent wardrobe consisted of two shirts, one nightshirt, two pairs of stockings, one pair of draw- physicians of our lunatic asylums. And ers, and the clothes which he daily wore, and how desirable is it that the holder of a which were old, dirty, and ragged. He appear- medical diploma should be a man of piety ed surprised when shown into a well-furnish--not the piety of a clique, but of characed room, and quite astonished when he saw a ter; for as the great Dr. Johnson says, comfortable dinner before him, and when his Christian conduct is the only safe guartea was decently served in the evening. Pa-antee for any man. The calling of the tients who have been so negligently cared for, almost always improve when thus respect physician is positively a Christian vocation fully treated. They make an effort to conform in its very nature, in so far as he is required to the decent habits of the house, and become to learn and to apply whatever can best procivil, and courteous, in their behavior. The mote the well-being of humanity. The violent conduct, which caused them to be fast- Great Physician is his pattern. But this higher aspect of medical science is best seen in the facts connected with the treatment of insanity. Bodily disease and mental disorder are, indeed, in general but as interchanging currents; and both really demand the use of physical aids on moral principles. And while the accumulated evidence before us of the successful treatment of insanity, is a positive argument for the truth of Christianity, since it shows that the system of "pity, goodness, and justice"-the system that suppresses anger, and prevails, by comforting and encouraging is the right one; so also does the whole practice of medicine demonstrate that the vis medicatrix is one that works best with gentle or soothing means, and by removing all causes of irritation. That these disorders of body and mind, which come under treatment in asylums for the insane, are mostly due to mental distress, may be inferred from the means found most effectual in their removal - such as improved diet and lodging, more comfortable clothing, pure air and genial temperature, cheerful faces, kind and patient attention, a certain amount of indulgence to morbid fancies, and a due alternation of repose and employment. As Dr. Conolly says: "By far the greater number of agents remedial in insanity, gradually influence the mind itself. Asylums, to be really instrumental of cure, must have gardens of flowers, agreeable views, convenient furniture, cheerful attendants, and every thing, in short, that may afford comfort and rest, and soothing engagements for the senses.' The poor often come to the asylums half-starved, and good food is not unfrequently of far more consequence than any medicine to them: "Among other patients admitted was a poor tailor's wife; she had been insane some months, apparently from want of nourishment and comforts. She was a kind of mud skeleton. Looking as if she might at any moment drop down and die, she still danced and sung, and ran to and fro, and tore her clothes and all ordinary bedding to rags. We had just begun to meet these difficulties, without restraints, and she was indulged in some of her harmless fancies; supplied, among other things, with useless remnants, that she might amuse herself with tearing them into shreds. Good food was given her and porter. She became stouter, and she became calmer; and soon she employed herself in making dresses instead of tearing them. Thus a happy recovery was commencing, when her poor husband came to see her. The sight of "When my first attempts to convey clinical instruction in the asylum were made, a remarkably fine-looking young woman (æt. 20) was brought in, wearing a stait-waistcoat very tightly put on. Her face was flushed; her eyes were animated; she was extremely noisy and excited; talked loudly, and frequently sung, came near her. It was observed that both the but was very irascible with every body who wrists and ankles of this young person were ulcerated, as if by having worn iron handcuffs and leg-locks. The strait-waistcoat was taken off, and the patient being put into a warm-bath, ceased to be angry, and expressed her sense of relief in the liveliest terms. The treatment of bodily disorder by gentle medicines, combined of those about her, soon restored her to perfect with rest, tranquillity, and the general kindness health. The mere discontinuance of the restraints, and the friendly reception given to her on admission, had a striking effect; in two days she was introduced to the matron's room to do some needlework. On the third day she was considerably excited, disposed to laugh loudly and long; but influenced by quiet plained of those infernal fetters she had worn words, and perfectly good-tempered. She comday and night for three weeks. She rapidly and entirely recovered. No doubt could exist in the minds of observers of this case, that many such, neglected in many miserable asylums, passed on to chronic and incurable stages." -P. 118. Another young married woman, (æt. 25,) whose malady resulted from nursing and semi-starvation, was brought in, tied up in complicated restraints, although literally too feeble to stand. Her wrists and ankles were ulcerated, and her toes in a state of mortification. Good food, wine, liberty, fresh air, and the sense of having kind people about her, wrought wonderful ef fects. She soon became healthy and reasonable. She had a distinct recollection of all the events of her illness, and described her sufferings from the straitwaistcoat by day and the iron handcuffs by night, when both hands and feet were fastened to the bedstead. We might accumulate instances equally striking of the immediate good effects of the non-restraint system, but since the Hanwell reports and the lucid appeals of Dr. Conolly to the public mind, it is scarcely necessary to do more by way of demonstrating the value of that system than to point attention to the results. The evening parties of the insane at Hanwell are merely proofs of the necessity of harmless enjoyment as a means of animating the mind, even under the most unfavorable circumstances, to self-control and good feeling. There even the violent restrain themselves for the occasion, the convalescent wear an expression of serene satisfaction, and smiles play like sunshine on the face of the melancholic, and the attendants learn the luxury of doing good. And all this is attained at the cost of a little decoration and a few extra devices for the encouragement of those who have taste for fruit and flowers, music, dancing, tea, toast, and innocent good-fellowship; and who is so mad as to have no taste for any of these things, at least by sympathy with those who can enjoy them? Any one with a sensible heart, who has ever visited a lunatic asylum, will feel the force of Mrs. Opie's exclamation on seeing a patiet there: "What a world of wo is written on that face!" Yes, misery-the slow fire of a smothered wrath-is the prevailing possession of the insane. Whether arising from the perversions of a selfish will, or a sense of actual wrong, or from the misunderstandings of vanity and a love that seeks only to be loved for the sake of self- the most selfish form of all derangement-still the condition is the same; it is the madness of misery—a nervous system that can not resta heart knowing no peace, because without faith in true principles, and finding no bosom on which to repose, and no peaceful engagement either of the affections or the faculties-a soul seeking rest and finding none. What an object of compassion is a human being without confidence either in God or man! It is but a fuller development of what is common to our nature; and yet this nature is the object of Divine law; and this insane, unsatisfied, restless soul is the very being to whom the evangelic message is addressed and adapted: "Verè scire est per causas scire." Truly the seed of insanity, the vital principle of "unreason and unrest," is never to be dislodged from humanity by dint of medical skill, nor by education as a mere system of mnemonics. The rapidly growing necessity of more madhouses will not be stopped till those very principles which alone have been known to cure insanity are brought into full action upon society so as to pre vent it. "Pity, goodness, justice," cure insanity in the hands of Pinel, Tuke, and Conolly, by furnishing what the poor body and soul need; and when these Christian virtues work their way into the hearts and homes of our toiling myriads, the spread of insanity will cease, and not till then: "If all people were as careful not to provoke their fellow-creatures to wrath as the officers of good asylums are; were as indulgent to faults, and as accustomed to encourage and aid all attempts at self control and improvement; and if, which can not be, the sane were as much pre served as the insane in their retreat, from want of such places would far more abound in happiand gnawing care-the world without the walls ness, and far less in the causes by which so many distracted minds are driven within them for shelter and relief.”—P. 156. means and motives which will enable men But we must look higher for those to bear with one another in the clash and struggle of their competing worldly interests and passions. It is in the very nature of human activity to aggravate all the evils to which humanity is liable when left to work its own way. the restraints of a faith that not only teaches Unless curbed by a man his duty, but by affording the highest motive, enables him to do it in the best manner, the more intense the intellectual effort, and the more commanding the commerce, the vaster will be the derange ments of society. Labor will be undertaken only to find means for the indulonly to delude. So that, after all, it regence of lust, and ingenuity be exerted mains with the men who hold the secret of renovating society by Divine truth as a practical thing, to exhibit by all means the energy that can prevent all other influvitalizing power of that truth as the only der his madness and his misery not only ences from so acting upon man as to reninevitable, but extensive exactly in proportion to the growth of his ability to think and act. The remarks of Dr. Conolly on educa tion, with a view to the prevention of insanity, are especially valuable as coming from so experienced, practical, and successful a physician: "Very little consideration is required to show that in the management of children of tender years, many customs prevail which directly tend to irritate and spoil the growing brain. The system of mental and physical training generally adopted for children and youth is so far from being adapted to secure a sound mind in a sound body as to be little better than a satire on the common sense of mankind. From the very beginning, nothing is so conspicuous as a steady disregard of physiological principles." Those institutions in which congenital defect and imbecility are clearly recognized and systematically trained, afford us hints of practical importance in the management of all young minds. In those schools, the character of each pupil receives serious preliminary inquiry; qualities which appear naturally defective are not forced; faculties congenitally feeble are, if possible, strengthened, but never stimulated to diseased exertion; the moral qualities claim especial consideration; what is faulty is soon associated with a certain shame and sorrow; what is good receives generous encouragement; and while the intellect is trained, the affections are tenderly cultivated. There are juvenile victims, not a few, who with faculties unequally developed, but yet not so marked with malady as to be preserved from or dinary modes of education, are thrown into a crowd where they are unfitted to compete trampled on and put aside. For many of these it would have been a happy circumstance if they had been educated in institutions where alone the common principles of physiology are applied to the development of the understanding and the control of the feelings. Many a wayward temper, inherited from half-insane ancestors, might be thus soothed and regulated, and many a young person saved years of useless efforts, of errors, and vices. Attempts to amend these inherited or acquired faults by severities are never successful. Unlimited indulgence is equally fatal. Ordinary education, pursued with no higher views than the acquisition of fortune and station, has no salutary results. taught for display in society, and not for solace in quieter hours. But there is a frequent perversion of intellectual exercise more fatal than its omission, and which fills our asylums with lady-patients, terrified by metaphysical translations and bewildered by religious romances, and who have lost all custom of healthful evertion of body or mind, all love of natural objects, all interest in things most largely influencing the happiness of mankind. A large portion of the moral treatment resorted to in asylums consists in discouragement of the evil habits of mind into which such frivolous and unhappy beings have fallen. Exercise in the open air, customary and general activity, regular hours, a moderate attention to music and other such excitement, protection from fanatical exhortations, and the substitution of sensible books for the worthless tracts and volumes with which well-meaning friends have generally loaded their boxes, and which are henceforth locked up as so much mental poison. The same kind of care might in many cases have preserved from derangement. (P. 161.) We could wish that the Doctor had named a few of the pernicious tracts and volumes as a warning to those concerned; and it would not have been uninstructive had he informed us whether the majority of the inmates of Hanwell Asylum had ever read tracts of any kind. As far as our knowledge extends, we have reason to believe that the absence of all truly religious instruction has been a marked antecedent of insanity amongst the lower orders. Bibles and prayer-books are no mean helps in confirming convalescents at Hanwell, and preventing relapses; and it is certain that many are daily sustained by religious truth who without a knowledge of the plan of salvation would have sunk into the darkest madness under the weight of trouble and the sense of guilt. Dr. ConAll who have peculiar opportunities of olly expresses his pain and surprise that so ascertaining the mental habits of insane little interest is taken in education as a persons of the educated classes, well know means of preventing insanity, and in this that, with few exceptions, their previous we thoroughly sympathize with him. He studies and pursuits have been superficial mentions, with especial approval, the foland desultory, and often frivolous; the lowing works as useful helps to those who condition of the female mind especially is would carry out physical and moral traintoo often more deplorable still. Not only ing together: Dr. Andrew Combe's Prinis it most rare to find them familiar with ciples of Physiology, Dr. Southwood the best authors of their own country, but Smith's Philosophy of Health, Mr. most common to find that they have never Charles Bray's work on the Education of read a really good author, and that the few the Feelings, and a small volume on accomplishments they possess have been | Man's Power over Himself to Prevent or |