State of the Lincoln Lunatic Asylum (instituted November 4, 1819) : [seventeenth report].

  • Lincoln Lunatic Asylum (Lincoln, England)
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: State of the Lincoln Lunatic Asylum (instituted November 4, 1819) : [seventeenth report]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    were no patients more injured by the imposition of Restraint than these : the character of some of them, even during their most excited state, is improved since its discontinuance; and, at other times, instead of being a terror to the attendants and the officers, they are among the most affectionate and grateful patients in the house. “ The Resident Physician dwells more minutely on Seclusion, because he considers it as one of the most important of curative means, and as one of the least objectionable substitutes for every kind of restraint. It is open to no objec¬ tion which is not doubly applicable to restraint. All the possible evils of Seclusion were included among the innumerable evils of bodily coercion. Whilst the patients, who were permitted to walk about in restraint, were still capable of inflicting injury upon others, they were not protected from causes of irritation, or from the attacks of other patients. When put in Seclusion, it was a seclusion which did not tranquillize. The arms or the hands were closely confined to the body ; or the arms, or the legs, were strapped or chained to the bedstead ; or the head was confined by a strap round the neck. In this state they were left for days or for weeks, in the most miserable condition in which a human being could be placed; and often to the total ruin of all habits of cleanliness. The patients themselves, who now come to us from other Asylums, reported, ‘Violent and Dirty,’ sometimes remark, that they could not be otherwise than dirty when they were chained down in a deep bed like a trough. The same patients, being freed from all Restraint the moment they arrive at Hanwell, seldom prove dirty, and not always violent. “ To obviate every objection to Seclusion, all the resources of the Non-restraint System must be brought to bear upon it. The destruction of bedding and of clothing should be prevented by bedding properly secured in ticking covers, strongly sewed; and by clothing of the same material, fastened by small locks instead of buttons. If the patient will not lie in bed, warm boots, similarly fastened, should be constantly worn. So important do even trifling matters be¬ come as auxiliaries to this kind of treatment, that it may be right to mention, that the ticking should be of the best and strongest manufacture, and carefully sewed with the strongest thread; or, in the case of Male Patients, with twine. Without proper precautions of this kind, the attendants will very probably report that the dresses and blanket-cases are useless. The attendants should be con¬ tinually exhorted to watch for all favorable opportunities, to get the patient out of his room and into the open air : and the cleanliness of his apartment and person, and the proper administration of food to him, should be most scrupulously observed. “ All proper Medical means are compatible with this treatment: and although some cases must be expected to be much more troublesome than others ; al¬ though, indeed, it is known to all familiar with Insanity, that there are cases, in