State of the madhouses in England.

Date:
[1815]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: State of the madhouses in England. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/52 (page 537)
    “ Did you in March 1814, visit certain cells pointed out to you by Mr. Higgins, in the Lunatic Asylum at York?—I did. “ In what state did you find them ?—I found them newly cleaned out, the stench was abominable; I turned over the new straw which had been put upon the floor, and the boards were wet; and 1 pressed my stick upon the floor to see whether it was impregnated with the mois¬ ture, and I could have marked any letter upon it in the remains of the filth. I should say it was hardly possible it could have been cleaned out for a considerable time; the floor was completely saturated with filth. “ Do you know any other particulars of the state of the Asylum at York? — The general state of the Asylum was fit hy in the extreme. “ Have you read the statement made by Mr. Higgins, of the part which you took along with him, in the examination of the Lunatic Asylum ?—I have. “ Are the statements there made, by Mr. Higgins, of your interfer¬ ence in the business, correct ?—Perfectly so; I think it was in or about March 1814 there was a meeting at which I attended, and I was desired by one of the governors to go into one of the day-rooms; he said he had a person there that had formerly worked for him, and he wished to see him. I, together with a governor and Colonel John Cooke of Camps Mount, went into a day-room; there were about twelve men patients in it; upon opening the door my feelings were so offended, that I could hardly proceed from the stench; I retreated into the passage and was very near vomiting; Colonel John Cooke, who was with me, staid about two minutes longer in the day-room, and he assured me that he felt the nausea the whole day afterwards.” (Report, p. 9, 10.) To these we must add another testimony, which has the great advantage of plenitude of detail, we mean the testimony of Mr. Jonathan Gray, of York, who in 1815 addressed to Mr. Wil* berforce, and published with his name, a History of the York Lunatic Asylum. We consider this account, therefore, as the testimony of Mr. Gray, delivered, not before the Committee of the House of Commons, but a much more august tribunal, the British Nation, including both Llouses of Parliament with all their Committees. We recommend it to a peculiar degree of at¬ tention ; not only as it corroborates, which it does in a very extra¬ ordinary manner, the existence of the abuses to which Mr. Hig¬ gins and others gave testimony; but because it accounts for them, by producing the causes; and most usefully elucidates the sort of train into which the affairs of public charities are apt to fall, where somebody, either alone, or with others, finds there the means of opening to himself a channel of emolument; eases other people of trouble, by taking it upon himself; and making them a screen as exercising an inspection which they cease to perform, manages just as he pleases; that is, just as his ease and emoluments prescribe*