∗ The following was the number of pauper lunatics chargeable in August, 1843, with their place of maintenance:— Google Scholar

Population of England and Wales (estimated) 16,000,000 Google Scholar

Number of Pauper Lunatics and Idiots to Population, 1 in 1066 Google Scholar

∗ “In June, 1839, Dr. Conolly was appointed resident physician at Hanwell. In September he had abolished all mechanical restraints. The experiment was a trying one, for this great asylum contained eight hundred patients. But the experiment was successful; and continued experience proved incontestably that in a well-ordered asylum the use even of the strait-waistcoat might be entirely discarded. Dr. Conolly went further than this. He maintained that such restraints are in all cases positively injurious, that their use is utterly inconsistent with ngood system of treatment; and that, on the contrary, the absence of all such restraints is naturally and necessarily associated with treatment such as that of lunatics ought to be, one which substitutes mental for bodily control, and is governed in all its details by the purpose of preventing mental excitement, or of soothing it before it bursts out into violence. He urged this with feeling and per suasive eloquence, and gave in proof of it the results of his own experiment at Hanwell. For, from the time that all mechanical restraints were abolished, the occurrence of frantic behaviour among the lunatics became less and less frequent. Thus did the experiments of Charlesworth and Conolly confirm the principles of treatment inaugurated by Daquin and Pinel; and prove that the best guide to the treatment of lunatics is to be found in the dictates of an enlightened and re fined benevolence. And so the progress of science, by may of experiment, has led men to rules of practice nearer and nearer to the teachings of Christianity. To my eyes a pauper lunatic asylum, such as may now be seen in our English counties, with its pleasant grounds, its airy and cleanly wards, its many comforts, and wise and kindly superintendence, provided for those whose lot it is to bear the donhle burthen of poverty and mental derangement say this sight is to me the -most blessed manifestation of true civilisation that the world can present.” This result we owe to the courage and philanthropy of such men as Pinel and Conolly. Pinel's large acquirements and practical intellect would alone have availed nothing; his first step would never have been taken but for the generous impulses of a feeling heart and courageous spirit. Conolly's experiment at Hanwell would have been foiled by opposition and discouragement, had lie not been sustained by a spirit of earnest benevolence towards his unhappy patients. Google Scholar

“The spirit which animated these two men is the spirit without which much of the progress of practical medicine would have been impossible. For, however diverse may be the intellectual powers that find their several fit places in the study and practice of medicine, there is but one right temper fur it—the temper of benevolence and courage; the temper in which Larrey invented the ambulance volantes, that he might bring help to the wounded under fire; the temper in which physicians have devoted themselves to the study of the plague and other infectious fevers; that same temper which has originated and sustained the highest Christian enterprises, and which ennobles any mnn who, possessing it, with an honest and true heart does his duty in our profession.”—The Harveian Oration, 1806, by Gcorye E. Par/el, M.D. Cantab. Google Scholar

∗ ‘Supplement to the Twelfth Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy to the Lord Chancellor.’ Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 151ft Afrit, 1859. Google Scholar

∗ Tills would occupy about a fortnight off and on in the year, and would form a healthful change of work, and be alike beneficial to the medical superintendent and to the inmates of the Unions whom he would visit. Of course this arrange ment implies the presence at the county asylum of one or more assistant medical otlicers—a point much iusUted on by the Commissioners. Google Scholar

∗ 25th and 26th Viet., cap. 54, §5. Google Scholar

† ‘Ninth Annual Report of General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland, 1867.’ Google Scholar

‡ ‘General Reports on Lunatics in Private Dwellings, 1867.’ Google Scholar

∗ “Gheel in the North.”—‘Journal of Mental Science,’ Jnly, 1866. Google Scholar

† “If to this estimate of the most recent additions to the public accommodation provided for pauper lunatics we apply the ratio of increase in the number re quiring accommodation observable during the last year, some conclusion may be formed as to the period for which these additional beds are likely to he found suf ficient to meet the constantly increasing wants of the country, and how far they will tend towards the object we hare sought most anxiously to promote ever since the establishment of this Commission, namely, the ultimate closing of Licensed Houses for Pauper Lunatics.”—' Twelfth Report of the Commission in Lunacy to the Lord Clmni-pllor, 1858.' Google Scholar

∗ “I cannot but think that future progress in the improvement of the treat ment of the insane lies in the direction of lessening the sequestration, and in creasing the liberty of them. Many chronic insane, incurable, and harmless, will be allowed to spend the remaining days of their sorrowful pilgrimage in private families, having the comforts of family life, and the priceless blessing of the ut most freedom that is compatible with their proper care. The one great impedi ment to this reform at present lies in the public ignorance, the unreasoning fear, and the selfish avoidance of insanity. When knowledge is gradually made to take the place of ignorance, then will a kindly feeling of sympathy for the insane unite with a just recognition of their own interests on the part of those who re ceive them into their houses, to secure for them proper accommodation and good treatment. Then, also, will asylums, instead of being vast receptacles for the con cealment and safe keeping of lunacy, acquire more and more the character of hospitals for the insane; while those who superintend them, being able to give more time and attention to the scientific study of insanity and to the means of its treatment, will no longer be opon to the reproach of forgetting their character as Physicians, and degenerating into mere house stewards, farmers, or secre taries.”—' The Physiology and Pathology of the Mind,' ly Henry Maudsley, M.D. Land. Google Scholar

∗ In 1851 the population of the county of Sussex was 336,844, and in 1861 363,735, being an increase of 26,891 in the decennium. I am allowing in my calculations a possible increase of 137,265 in the two decenniums. Google Scholar