their former habits, their ability, and inclination; the importance of this has been acknowledged, and it has formed part of the plan of cure acted upon in some of our most respectable private asylums. At an establishment in Ireland, many of the patients have been taught to spin, with profit to the institution, and benefit to their health (s).

It requires but little knowledge of human nature to be convinced, that in many cases, when all motives to exertion and means of occupation have been withheld, and all desire of improvement extinguished, the faculties will soon languish and become paralysed for want of proper objects on which they can be exercised; and the man will soon sink into the condition of the brute. It is abundantly proved by the evidence before the committees of the two houses of Parliament, that these wretched outcasts of humanity have, in many instances, been too hastily consigned to neglect and oblivion, and, owing in many cases to mistaken notions respecting the nature of their malady, those means of cure have been neglected which the exertions of benevolent and persevering individuals have, in many instances, proved might be successfully applied.

Dr. Haslam published a tract (t), to demonstrate that in every case of insanity, and in all stages of the disorder, medical skill or moral management may be highly advantageous; and contribute either to the cure of the disease, or to the comfort and happiness of the lunatic; that the state of violence may be subdued, or at least moderated by medical assistance, and the tranquillity which succeeds may be occupied by the establishment of habits which conduce to regularity of conduct; and pointed out some of the circumstances attending insane persons, which by proper management might lead to salutary changes in their moral treatment, and thereby produce an amelioration of their condition.

The same author observes (u), to every man possessing experience of this disorder, it is a well known fact, that, in

(s) Males' Elements of Forensic Medicine, pp. 233, 234, 2nd ed.

(t) Considerations on the Moral

Management of Insane Persons, 8vo. 1817.

(u) Id. p. 11.

the passive state, many may be usefully, and to themselves pleasingly, employed, although they labour under a lamentable degree of mental derangement. Some of these persons it is, perhaps, impossible to cure; but they may be much amended, and certainly enabled to partake of greater comforts than they have hitherto been permitted to enjoy. Every thing which can tend to accumulate and diffuse human happiness should be anxiously sought and cultivated with care.

In many instances an intercourse with the world has dispelled those hallucinations which a protracted confinement, in all probability, would have added to and confirmed. In its passive state, insanity has been often known, if the expression be allowable, to wear off, by permitting the patient to enjoy his liberty, and return to his usual occupation and industrious habits; indeed, it might be naturally expected, that bodily labour in the open air, with moderate employment of mind, directed to some useful object, would more contribute to health and rationality, than immuring a person so circumstanced within the walls of a madhouse, provided his derangement be of a mild and inoffensive character. In this view of the subject a pauper has considerably the advantage of a man of rank and fortune. The former being an incumbrance to the parish during the time he is secluded, the parochial officers are disposed to afford him a trial by way of probation, rather than continue him in confinement at a considerable expense (g).

According to the cultivation of the human intellect, different pursuits engage the attention and administer enjoyment. There is, perhaps, something in natural structure, and consequent tendency, which excites a relish for particular employments and diversions; but infinitely more is conferred by education and the regular habitudes of thought and moral discipline. That amusement, under proper restrictions, may essentially contribute to benefit persons labouring under mental derangement, there can be no doubt; and some experience has been already collected on this subject; it is equally well known, where the mind has no access

(v) Id. pp. 15, 16.

to intelligence, that indifference, stupidity, and idiotism successively ensue.

In Dr. Latham's hints respecting the general management and employment of insane persons, are the following remarks:-"Reflect but an instant upon the situation in which a man must find himself, when, upon the least dawn of returning reason, he sees himself surrounded by objects under all the different gradations of mental misery; and it will at once be conceded, that any thing, however trivial, upon which his faculties could then be exercised, might contribute in an incalculable degree towards his comfort, and consequently towards his speedier recovery. Consider, too, the influence which the employment of the body possesses also over the mind, and it will readily be acknowledged, that something ought to be devised, by which the bodily strength of the patient might be made subservient towards its comfort and direction, at this most critical period of its weak and irregular condition. When the mind seems to be emerging from that abyss of misery in which it had been plunged, is the precise period when some pleasurable object should be presented to the mind, instead of those which are terrifying, and when its occupation should become amusing to it, and its pursuits rational. And this must be effected by finding an easy and proper employment for the body." He recommended a gallery and an open court in which exercises and innocent diversions might be allowed, under the superintendence of attendants; and suggested, that, for labour, a garden consisting of a few acres would supply the means of an almost endless variety; for it might be so planned and appropriated as to admit of every variety of horticultural labour and amusement. The sawing of stone, the manufacture of osier work and twine, and a variety of other safe and useful occupations would soon present themselves; in many of which the female patients might also be employed, as well as in mending and washing, and getting up the linen of the whole establishment (w). Another physician observed" One

(w) First Report on Madhouses, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 25th May, 1815, pp. 128, 129.

thing at least is certain, that, in the management of such maladies, tenderness is better than torture; kindness more effectual than constraint. Blows and the strait-waistcoat are often, it is to be feared, too hastily employed. It takes less trouble to fetter by means of cords, than by the assiduities of sympathy or affection. Nothing has a more favorable and controlling influence over one who is disposed to or actually affected with melancholy or mania, than an exhibition of friendship or philanthropy; excepting indeed in such cases, and in that state of the disease, in which the mind has been hardened and almost brutalized by having already been the subject of coarse and humiliating treatment. Where a constitutional inclination towards insanity exists, there is in general to be observed a more than ordinary susceptibility to resentment at any act that offers itself in the shape of an injury or an insult. Hence, it will not appear surprising, that so soon as an unfortunate victim has been inclosed within the awful barriers of either the public or the minor and more clandestine Bethlems, the destiny of his reason should, in a large proportion of cases, be irretrievably fixed. The idea that he is supposed to be insane, is almost of itself sufficient to make him so; and when such a mode of management is used with men, as ought not to be, although it too generally is, applied even to brutes, can we wonder if it should often, in a person of more than ordinary irritability, produce, or at any rate accelerate, the last and incurable form of that disease, to which at first perhaps there was only a delusive resemblance or merely an incipient approximation?"

Tasso, the celebrated poet, was once instigated by the violence of an amorous impulse to embrace a beautiful woman in the presence of her brother, who, happening to be a man of rank and power, punished this poetic license by locking up the offender in a receptacle for lunatics. It is said, that by this confinement he was made mad, who was before only too impetuous or indiscreet (x).

A heavy responsibility presses upon those who preside or

(x) Essays on Hypochondriasis, by Dr. Reid, pp. 303-305, 2nd edit.

officiate in the asylums of lunacy. Little is it known how much injustice is committed, and how much useless and wantonly inflicted misery is endured in those infirmaries for disordered, or rather cemeteries for deceased, intellect. Instead of trampling upon, we ought to cherish, and by the most delicate and anxious care strive to nurse into a clearer and a brighter flame the still glimmering embers of a nearly extinguished mind.

It is by no means the object of these remarks to depreciate the value of institutions, which, under a judicious and merciful superintendence, might be made essentially conducive to the protection of lunatics themselves, as well as to that of others, who would else be continually exposed to their vio-. lence and caprice. But it is to be feared, that many have been condemned to a state of insulation from all rational and sympathizing intercourse, before the necessity has occurred for so severe a lot. Diseased members have been amputated from the trunk of society, before they have become so incurable or unsound as absolutely to require separation. Many of the depôts for the captivity of intellectual invalids may be regarded only as nurseries for and manufactories of madness; magazines or reservoirs of lunacy, from which is issued, from time to time, a sufficient supply for perpetuating and extending this formidable disease-a disease which is not to be remedied by stripes or strait-waistcoats, by imprisonment or impoverishment, but by an unwearied tenderness, and by an unceasing and anxious superintendence (y).

That the moral means which the good sense and humanity of the moderns have in many instances so happily devised and applied, must be useful in many, nay in most cases, is indisputable, but they ought not to be wholly relied on, but considered as adjuncts only to the medical means to be employed for effecting a cure. It is to be lamented that the moral remedies are not of readier access, and rendered applicable to every situation where insane persons are placed. It is conceived that the attacks of insanity might, in many

(y) Essays on Hypochondriasis, by Dr. Reid, 308-310, 2nd edit.