Rules and list of the present members of the Society for Improving the Condition of the Insane : and the prize essay entitled The progressive changes which have taken place since the time of Pinel in the moral management of the insane, and the various contrivances which have been adopted instead of mechanical restraint / by Daniel H. Tuke.

  • Society for Improving the Condition of the Insane (London, England)
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Rules and list of the present members of the Society for Improving the Condition of the Insane : and the prize essay entitled The progressive changes which have taken place since the time of Pinel in the moral management of the insane, and the various contrivances which have been adopted instead of mechanical restraint / by Daniel H. Tuke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    abuses were discovered and every officer and servant dis¬ missed. These abuses it is necessary briefly to mention, because they were shown to have existed for many years previously, and hence they illustrate the condition of the insane at the period when a more enlightened moral management was introduced. By this contrast can we alone fully realize the importance and reality of reforms which have taken place in respect to the treatment of the most pitiable class of the human race. We proceed to consider the condition of the asylum under various heads, and are mainly indebted for the par¬ ticulars to Dr. Thurnam’s laborious work, the u Statistics of Insanity,” and the local publications of that period. I. —Means for exercise, occupation, and amusement. There were no day rooms with contiguous airing courts, and there were but two courts for all classes of patients except the opulent, who took their exercise in the garden. All the rest of the men, amounting in all to more than one hundred, were turned into one court ; and the women, amounting to about 70, into the other. In neither of these courts was there any provision for shelter against the rain or heat. u In this way, you might see” says one of the reforming governors u more than 100 poor creatures shut up together, unattended and uninspected by any one; the lowest paupers and persons of respectable habits, the me¬ lancholic and the maniac, the calm and the restless, the convalescent, and the incurable.” ... It was discovered that several patients had been killed by their companions. II. —Internal economy and government. There was a general want of order and discipline throughout the house ; the proportion of attendants to