DISUSE OF INSTRUMENTAL RESTRAINT IN THE TREATMENT OF LUNACY. — THE CLAIMS OF MR. R. GARDINER HILL.

308 to circulate, through your publication, the samei be justly due to me, but one which no one else can claim, and falsehoods that emanated from a source which you yourself have of which I shall not allow any one to rob me. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, urged me to treat with silent contempt, and were originally difROBT. GARDINER HILL. fused by means of a journal, the very name of which you con(Signed) sider inadmissible into the pages of THE LANCET, where, I may [The words initalic’ are so printed in the original.]" remark, one of these groundless calumnies, as a specimen of the credit due to them, has already been contradicted, in every particular, by documentary evidence. To t7te Editor of THE LANCET. I am anxious to give your readers the information which I SIR,—You have stated that I am correct in my quotation possess in regard to the treatment of stricture, but I will not submit much longer to be used as a target for the shafts of mis- from THE LANCET of the words reported to have been used by dinner of the Provincial Medical and representation and detraction. To all of Mr. Gay’s questions Dr. Charlesworth at the at Hull, in August, 1850. That is, at all Association, Surgical and denial. an my only reply is, indignant unqualified events, highly satisfactory, and I think conclusive; because it I am, Sir, your obedient servant, to me that THE LANCET invariably espouses, without appears JAMES SYME. March 11, 1851. Edinburgh, the cause of truth. Allow me, however, to add the partiality, P.S.-The enclosed letter from Mr. Hamilton Bell relates to of a living witness of no ordinary character-I testimony 11 one of the cases which have been characterized as failures’’ by mean that of Archibald Robertson, Esq., M.D., F.R.S., Fellow Mr. Gay. I beg you will publish it, not as a reply to anything of the College of Physicians of Edinburgh, a vice-presisaid by that person, whom I consider unworthy of notice in the dent Royal of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, and field of professional controversy, but as containing information to the General Infirmary, Northampton. physician that may interest the reader.-J. S. I am authorized also to add the succeeding letter from Dr. to the Mayor of Lincoln. I I am, Sir, yours faithfully, 13, Charlotte-square, March 11, 1851. JOHN DANIEL. DEAR SIR,—I am happy to be enabled to report to you most East Ardsley Parsonage, Wakefield, March 10, 1851. the case of No. 2 in on work. Captain M-, your satisfactorily He was enabled, within a few months after the operation, to Northampton, March 8, 1851. return to his duty in India, perfectly restored to health. He has DEAR SIR,—I received your letter of the 25th of February, and now risen in his profession, and by the last accounts received is ’ in as good health as he ever enjoyed;" so you may congratulate am sorry that I have been thus tardy in acknowledging it. yourself on saving my friend from what must have been a life of My silence has been owing to a temporary pressure of occupapoverty and misery, if that life had been preserved, of which tion. I am greatly concerned to hear that an attempt has been there seemed little hope in the beginning of 1849. set on foot to rob Mr. R. G. Hill of the honour-so justly his Most truly yours, due-of PRIORITY in the invention and practical application of GEORGE HAMILTON BELL. (Signed) Professor Syme. the non-restraint system to the treatment of insanity. I shall be still more concerned if it should turn out-which I am slow ** We cannot refrain from expressing our surprise and regret, to believe-that Dr. Charlesworth has lent any countenance that Mr. Syme, while labouring under the influence of excited to such attempt. However, I have the satisfaction of knowing the matter is in highly competent hands, and that you feelings, should exhibit such profound ignorance of the duty of that and the other gentlemen of the committee will see thorough As we are not accustomed to be an impartial public journalist. done to Mr. Hill. justice influenced by threats, we trust that the note which we now I wrote yesterday to the Mayor of Lincoln, in answer to his publish from Mr. Syme will terminate that gentleman’s corre- letter of the 25th ult., addressed to me, in which he requested to know if I had a DISTINCT recollection of what fell from Dr. spondence with THE LANCET.-ED. L. Charlesworth at the Hull meeting. I have answered his letter at some length, and have appended an extract from the DISUSE OF INSTRUMENTAL RESTRAINT IN THE speeches at the Hull meeting, as reported in our own recognised organ, the Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal. I need TREATMENT OF LUNACY. — THE CLAIMS OF not speak of the contents of my letter at more length, as I MR. R. GARDINER HILL. take for granted it will be laid, by the mayor, before yourself and the other members of Mr. Hill’s committee. To the Editor of THE LANCET. am no partizan in this matter, but an unbiassed witness. SIR,—This question cannot rest upon the accuracy or inter- I Ihave every friendly disposition both to Dr. Charlesworth of used at the Provincial at Association pretation expressions and Mr. Hill, as respected members of the same profession in the The report Provincial Med’ical and Surgical myself, and would gladly do a kindness to either of them. Journal, to which you make a reference in your last number, "with Sed magis amica veritas." When appealed to, as I have did not give entire satisfaction,as will appear in the subjoined in this business, I feel that I have nothing to consider been, letter, October 25th, 1850. but the cause of truth. For this reason I have spoken openly 11 am, Sir, your obedient servant, and conclusively in favour of Mr. Hill’s priority of claim. Lincoln, March 3, 851. E. V. CHARLESWORTH. CHARLESWOBTH. You are free to make any use of this letter you may think (COPY.) i fit. Believe me to be, dear Sir, with great respect, 191 To the Editor of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal Yours, faithfully, Rev. J. Daniel, East Ardsley, Wakefield. A. ROBERTSON. SIR,—Will you allow me to correct an error in the report of my speech at the meeting at Hull, which appears in your Northampton, March 7, 1851. journal of August 21st. You therein report thus of my observations: ‘He (Mr. Hill) was bound to acknowledge that the SIR,—Iam very sorry that a succession of very pressing system (of non-restraint) did, to some extent, (!) originate with professional occupations has prevented me from sooner rehimself.’ Now, the wordsto some extent’ were never plying to your letter of the 25th of February. uttered by me, and seem to throw a doubt upon my being, as In that letter you state that "Mr. Pierce has addressed the the records of the Lincoln Asylum indisputably and indelibly public, claiming the honour of originality for Dr. Charlesworth" prove me to be, the sole author and originator of the total as to the discovery and first practice of the non-restraint sysabolition or non-restraint system in the treatment of lunatics. tem in the treatment of lunatics. You go on to ask whether I shall be obliged to you to insert this my correction of I "recollect Dr. Charlesworth making use of the expression, your statement. To Dr. Conolly belongs the merit of adopting at the meeting of the Provincial Medical Association held at and carrying out this system, in an institution eight times as Hull in August last, that the real honour of first introducing large as that of Lincoln, and I trust the public testimonial the system was due to Mr. 1--Till"? When thus appealed to, I have no hesitation in saying that which is about to be presented to that gentleman will be worthy of the great services which he has rendered to man- I have a very distinct recollection of the above expressions kind. But as he himself frankly and honourably avowed, and having been made use of by Dr. Charlesworth, or words to as from my own knowledge of him I am sure he will again at that effect. The information made the greater impression any time avow, he was not the author of that system. The upon me, as it was perfectly new to me. So vague and im. merit of that, be it more or less, is not one which, as your perfect was my knowledge as to the first discovery and pracleading article of September 4th would seem to imply, may tice of the non-restraint system, prior to the Hull meeting,

permitted him

Robertson

Hull.

309 that I had thought the merit of it belonged to Dr. Conolly, of victims alike. (This firm has been mentioned in THE LANCET.) Hanwell. Acting upon this thought, I had, very shortly Death at last terminated the sufferings of the poor man, before the Hull meeting, subscribed my mite towards a testi- leaving a doubt in our minds as to whether it was not accemonial to Dr. Conolly, which had been suggested at a meeting lerated by this potato-flour-arrow-root, sold as the " finest in London presided over by Lord Ashley. But when I heard, West India,the most nutritious diet for infants, and very at the said Hull meeting, the credit of having really originated suitable as a gift to poor invalids." the non-restraint system, frankly and gracefully declined by How long this system is to be carried on with impunity Dr. Conolly on the one hand, and by Dr. Charlesworth on the alone remains for us to witness what effect your exposures other, and by both unhesitatingly ascribed to Mr. R. G. Hill, I may have. The public are generally very dilatory on such a could not for a moment doubt that the latter gentleman had subject; but if they for once act upon suggestion, and do as the honour and the high merit of having originated this vast you advise, by purchasing of the honest man alone, then we improvement in the treatment of lunacy. may soon expect to obtain good articles generally; but if Although I happened to sit very near to Dr. Conolly, Dr. they do not practise this, and will not be alive to their own Charlesworth, and Mr. Hill, at the Hull meeting, and was not interests, continued imposition will bring merited punishment likely to hear imperfectly what they said on the occasion, I on the heads of the purchasers; for we cannot expect an end have been anxious to test the accuracy of my recollection of to such proceedings when those very persons who should pretheir words by a reference to the report contained in the vent this systematic robbery are aiding and abetting, to their Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal. I enclose an extract own serious loss. from that report, and by it you will perceive that there is no Again, Sir, I repeat, you deserve the applause of the public$ mistake in what (I thought and believed) I had distinctly the government, and the mercantile world; for while the heard. government is defrauded of its revenue, so the merchant is likewise a serious loser by this system of adulteration. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your faithful, humble servant, Hoping that by continued perseverance in your great unA. ROBERTSON, To Charles Ward, Esq., Mayor of Lincoln. dertaking you may witness the consummation of your honestRoBERTSON, M.D. dealing purpose, I beg to subscribe myself, yours obediently, We have also received a letter on this subject from Mr’ J. L. Richard Sutton Harvey, of Lincoln, for the entire publication of which we cannot afford space, but in which Mr. Harvey ON KOSSO. quotes a review of Mr. Hill’s lecture in the Lincoln Standard To the Editor of THE LANCET. of the 15th of May, 1839, which review he states was written by Sir Edw.Ff. Bromhead, and revised by Dr. Charlesworth. SIR,—Iam happy to see that the Kosso is at length attract.. From that review he makes the following extracts :ing the attention of the medical profession in Europe. Hav" ’Mr. Hill had for some time successfully carried into ing, when attached to Sir William Harris’s mission to Shoa, operation at our asylum the total abolition of all restraint and resided nearly two years in Abyssinia, where it is in constant all severity before he presented himself to the public as the use as an article of domestic medicine, I trust I may be deliverer of a lecture on the subject........... In this lecture, allowed to add my testimony as to its safety and efficacy, under Mr. Hill exhibits a frightful picture of the ancient abuses common care, as an anthelmintic. On our return to India we universally inflicted on the insane, until the benevolent Pinel brought more than half a camel-load of the seed and dried made an inroad on this domain of cruelty. He began what flowers of the Kosso with us, which I believe was forwarded by Mr. Hill completed.........At Lincoln the boards resolutely set the Indian govenment to England. about to ameliorate the treatment, and have confirmed the I add an extract from my " Medical Report to Government remark,were every one to see the whole effects, mediate and on the Kingdom of Shoa," which was published in the Transactions of the Medical and Physical Society of Bombay, for immediate, present and remote, even of trifling acts of or evil, his mind would, on many occasions, be filled with the year 1843:delight or remorse.’ The governors never expressed a wish for i " The next disease deriving importance from its extreme the extinction of restraints; they never expected it; not one of them prevalence in Abyssinia, is the Taenia Solium (called wosefat,) deemed it possible." which species of intestinal worm attacks all classes, and there " If then (says Mr. Harvey),the governors never expressed are very few natives who are exempt from them. By thema wish for the extinction of restraints’-if they never exselves it is attributed to eating brindo or raw flesh, and they pected it’-andnot one of them deemed it possible’-how can assert that those who abstain from this diet are free from the Mr. Hill bean agent in an experiment to which he has no complaint, but that if it once makes its appearance it is seldom That Mr. Hill was ’an agent’ in such an eradicated; the Abyssinians retaining the opinion that each claim whatever’! experiment, is just as true as that the Duke of Wellington was joint is capable of reproducing a perfect worm. an agent in an experiment made by the British nation on the " Fortunately the country which is so peculiarly the seat of balance of, power in Europe-i. e., he was the agent by whose this disease possesses a most efficient remedy in the flowers bold and decisive genius the plan of battle was devised, and of the Kosso, which tree being so indispensable to the health by whose cool and determined courage and perseverance the of the inhabitants, is carefully preserved, and a group of them is always found in the immediate vicinity of the villages. victory was achieved." This valuable anthelmintic is taken by every individual regularly every two months, children commencing the discipline THE ANALYTICAL SANITARY COMMISSION. at the age of five or six years, and continuing it for the reTo the Editor of THE LANCET. mainder of their lives. This frequent and indiscriminate use, SIR,—As one of a class likely to feel great benefit by the however, gives origin to serious complaints, of which prolapsus exposure which, for the public good, you have been liberal ani is the most common; the great exhaustion following its enough to occupy both time and space in your valuable violent action, when injudiciously administered, sometimes journal, I think as an individual, judging from the expressions even terminating fatally. The continued use of this drastic of numerous friends, that I should but record the sentiments purgative, though necessary to the preservation of health, of the public generally, were I to say that I heartily thank must tend to shorten the natural period of existence, for the you, and highly appreciate your valuable aid in thus exposing Shoans are not a long-lived race, and instances of advanced the fraudulent dealer in his illegal and dishonest traffic. I old age are rarely met with. have no doubt hundreds of instances have occurred as the one "Kosso (Hagenia Abyssinica), when in maturity, attains the which took place in my own family, through the want of such growth of a moderate sized tree, its red racemes of blossom much resembling in form and distribution those of the horse a guide as you have presented to the public by your Analytical Sanitary Commission. A member of my family having chesnut. These flowers are first died in the sun, and all stalk been seriously afflicted with illness for some time, became so and extraneous matter carefully removed, and are then pounded reduced, that he was not able to take solid food. The medical fine. The dose varies from six to eight drachms weight, acgentleman, among other light articles, prescribed arrow-root, cording to the quality of the drug and strength of the person, which, for the space of three months, formed the principal and is drank early in the morning in a cupful of cold water; article of diet-or nourishing food-he partook of, but which, if kept mixed for any length of time its power is said to bethrough your journal, we have since learnt to be starch and come deteriorated. It usually acts in the course of a couple denied a suffering of hours, the first evacuations being watery and the worm potato-flour; the tradesman having thus the mainstay, and, generally expelled by the third or fourth; during the time of fellow-creature, through his dishonesty, him through his its operation, abstinence from food or drink is enjoined, but perhaps, the necessary nutriment to sustain illness, thousands of other poor persons, I have no doubt, being afterwards in the evening, the patient is directed to eat freely

good

....