The homoeopathic principle applied to insanity : a proposal to treat lunacy by spiritualism / by James John Garth Wilkinson.

  • Wilkinson, James John Garth, 1812-1899.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The homoeopathic principle applied to insanity : a proposal to treat lunacy by spiritualism / by James John Garth Wilkinson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    faith will propagate itself from the works with rapidity, and the more gifted spirit-draughtsmen will gradually be looked up to, and acquire a power over the rest. In a little time, from their peculiar experience, they will be able to manage their co-insane friends better than the adventitious attendants; until at last the grand mediums of the asylum, on both sides, male and female, will be enabled to con- trol the whole mad kingdom with a glance; to direct it with skill; to supervise its details; to feel its wants. Then shall be realized that saying, “ Who governs mad- men must himself be mad — mad, that is to say, in the inverse sense of worldly sanity, divinely mad. But who is to set all this going, in the first instance ? It must be the Spirit-Mediums, of whom there are scores, and will soon be hundreds, in this metropolis. I will engage to find Sisters of Charity who will take the initia- tive, and do it all; and faithful brothers who will second those sisters. Once commenced, the work will propagate itself with that velocity which marks great spiritual move- ments in the outer courts of history. It will be as swift as early Christianity, when miracles paved the way of light: as rapid as Mahometanism, when a faith, though not of the purest, cut a scimetar-path through the moun- tains of infidelity: as quick as Joan of Arc in marshalling hearts, or as Cromwell in calling swordsmen out of the land. It will be very quick indeed; and the men and women who will work at its inauguration stand ready pre- pared. Spirit-drawing has been mentioned especially in the foregoing paragraphs ; but it is not necessary to limit the occupations and amusements of the Asylum to drawing alone. Writing, composition, especially poetry, will flow by the same involuntary gift; modelling also may be cul- tivated ; or music, or working of patterns in crochet or other work ; or speaking and singing: in short, any kind of art production which comes spontaneously, may be