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BALLS AT ASYLUMS FOR THE INSANE.
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gates, and walls ; but I am an advocate for and the blacksmith ; and their patrons, Drs. wholesome bodily restraint as a curative Clutterbuck, Johnson, and Co. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, means. When, Sir, I shall learn to distrust the evidence of my own eyes-when my ears A MEDICAL SUPERINTENDENT. shall understand expressions of pleasure to Dec. 26,1841. be those of sorrow-when I can believe that has letter The writer verified his by the joyous, happy scenes I have lately wit** nessed were but a dream, then, but not till his name and address in a separate note. then, shall I return to my past belief in the ferocious, implacable, and untameable character of the mad, and in the efficacy of BALLS AT ASYLUMS FOR THE straps, chains, and solitary cells. INSANE. It should be understood that the male and the female patients are never in the same To the Editor of THE LANCET. apartment, but female visitors do not refuse to
dance with
male
patients,
and male
SIR,-Again I have been present at one of visitors dance with female patients. I am, these monthly festivities in the Lincoln AsySir, yours respectfully, lum, attended, as before, by inhabitants of A CONVERT. the town, several of whom were young and Jan. 1842. Lincoln, delicate females, moving in most respectable circles of society. The association of the sane with the insane, free from any personal EVIDENCE IN FAVOUR OF THE control, under circumstances most exhilaratNON-RESTRAINT SYSTEM. ing, forms a peculiar feature in the Lincoln Asylum balls, and presents a practical con" ONE of the most refractory and distresstradiction of those prejudices which have so been exhibitions of shackled fostered, by ing cases now in the house, is that of an unlong limbs behind barred gates and in gloomy fortunate female (Miss A.), the judicious and cells, impressing the beholder with alarm humane management of which, I fearlessly and horror, and inculcating notions of the assert, can never be accomplished, by any necessity of a vigorous and severe manage- means at present known, without recourse to
instrumental restraint."-See Mr. Hadwen’s It presents, also, incontestable evidence of letter in THE LANCET, September 12, 1840, the capacity of the insane for social enjoy- p.906. ment, as well as agreeable excitement, and of the efficacy of these without instrumental To the Editor of THE LANCET. restraint, or other severities. Even the SIR,-The name of Miss A. having been famed Miss A., whose case was so industrirepeatedly brought forward ill your pages in the and other county ously advertised by the opponents of the non-restraint system, journals, by the opponents of the non-restraint as an instance of the impracticability of carsystem, as an argument against that system, out that system with patients who are rying I have witnessed, now, on several occasions, relieved both from instrumental and solitary peculiarly disposed to commit acts of vi04 lence, I beg your insertion of the following confinement, a partner in a dance, or walk- extracts from the journals of the Lincoln ing in the streets and neighbourhood with a Asylum respecting her, and some other single attendant.* of a similar description, who have Finding that similar entertainments are patients been treated for several months past without coming into practice in other asylums, I I would direct the attention of their managers any recourse to seclusion, a system lately to the advantage of regular periodical abolished in the Lincoln Asylum, as restraint had been long before. monthly parties, to be looked forward to by the patients as a reward for self-control ; From the House-Surgeon’s Journal. and also to the benefit of introducing some " 1841, Dec. 9. C. A. (Miss A.) walked respectable neighbours. By varying the out on the Burton-road, returning by latter occasionally, a considerable advance Riseholme Bar. She was accompanied by will presently be made towards breaking nurse and A. B., a patient, both of Ringham down the barrier which has been so jealously whom inform me that A- conducted hermaintained between the sane and the insane, self with great propriety : she herself into the incalculable disadvantage of the latter, formed me that she had enjoyed the walk, of whose sympathies, susceptibilities, and and should like to repeat it on some future capabilities, the great mass of the public are occasion. almost as ignorant as the instrumental re° 1841, Dec. 17. C. A. continues orderly strainers themselves, their allies-the joiner and quiet; in fact, she is becoming one of the most tractable patients in the north gallery. * A letter relating to the present condition She appears to pay great attention to what nurse Ringham says to her. of this patient follows this letter. ment.
gates, and walls ; but I am an advocate for and the blacksmith ; and their patrons, Drs. wholesome bodily restraint as a curative Clutterbuck, Johnson, and Co. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, means. When, Sir, I shall learn to distrust the evidence of my own eyes-when my ears A MEDICAL SUPERINTENDENT. shall understand expressions of pleasure to Dec. 26,1841. be those of sorrow-when I can believe that has letter The writer verified his by the joyous, happy scenes I have lately wit** nessed were but a dream, then, but not till his name and address in a separate note. then, shall I return to my past belief in the ferocious, implacable, and untameable character of the mad, and in the efficacy of BALLS AT ASYLUMS FOR THE straps, chains, and solitary cells. INSANE. It should be understood that the male and the female patients are never in the same To the Editor of THE LANCET. apartment, but female visitors do not refuse to
dance with
male
patients,
and male
SIR,-Again I have been present at one of visitors dance with female patients. I am, these monthly festivities in the Lincoln AsySir, yours respectfully, lum, attended, as before, by inhabitants of A CONVERT. the town, several of whom were young and Jan. 1842. Lincoln, delicate females, moving in most respectable circles of society. The association of the sane with the insane, free from any personal EVIDENCE IN FAVOUR OF THE control, under circumstances most exhilaratNON-RESTRAINT SYSTEM. ing, forms a peculiar feature in the Lincoln Asylum balls, and presents a practical con" ONE of the most refractory and distresstradiction of those prejudices which have so been exhibitions of shackled fostered, by ing cases now in the house, is that of an unlong limbs behind barred gates and in gloomy fortunate female (Miss A.), the judicious and cells, impressing the beholder with alarm humane management of which, I fearlessly and horror, and inculcating notions of the assert, can never be accomplished, by any necessity of a vigorous and severe manage- means at present known, without recourse to
instrumental restraint."-See Mr. Hadwen’s It presents, also, incontestable evidence of letter in THE LANCET, September 12, 1840, the capacity of the insane for social enjoy- p.906. ment, as well as agreeable excitement, and of the efficacy of these without instrumental To the Editor of THE LANCET. restraint, or other severities. Even the SIR,-The name of Miss A. having been famed Miss A., whose case was so industrirepeatedly brought forward ill your pages in the and other county ously advertised by the opponents of the non-restraint system, journals, by the opponents of the non-restraint as an instance of the impracticability of carsystem, as an argument against that system, out that system with patients who are rying I have witnessed, now, on several occasions, relieved both from instrumental and solitary peculiarly disposed to commit acts of vi04 lence, I beg your insertion of the following confinement, a partner in a dance, or walk- extracts from the journals of the Lincoln ing in the streets and neighbourhood with a Asylum respecting her, and some other single attendant.* of a similar description, who have Finding that similar entertainments are patients been treated for several months past without coming into practice in other asylums, I I would direct the attention of their managers any recourse to seclusion, a system lately to the advantage of regular periodical abolished in the Lincoln Asylum, as restraint had been long before. monthly parties, to be looked forward to by the patients as a reward for self-control ; From the House-Surgeon’s Journal. and also to the benefit of introducing some " 1841, Dec. 9. C. A. (Miss A.) walked respectable neighbours. By varying the out on the Burton-road, returning by latter occasionally, a considerable advance Riseholme Bar. She was accompanied by will presently be made towards breaking nurse and A. B., a patient, both of Ringham down the barrier which has been so jealously whom inform me that A- conducted hermaintained between the sane and the insane, self with great propriety : she herself into the incalculable disadvantage of the latter, formed me that she had enjoyed the walk, of whose sympathies, susceptibilities, and and should like to repeat it on some future capabilities, the great mass of the public are occasion. almost as ignorant as the instrumental re° 1841, Dec. 17. C. A. continues orderly strainers themselves, their allies-the joiner and quiet; in fact, she is becoming one of the most tractable patients in the north gallery. * A letter relating to the present condition She appears to pay great attention to what nurse Ringham says to her. of this patient follows this letter. ment.