Observations on the admission of medical pupils to the wards of Bethlem Hospital, for the purpose of studying mental diseases / by John Webster.

Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the admission of medical pupils to the wards of Bethlem Hospital, for the purpose of studying mental diseases / by John Webster. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    tages arising from the system now followed at these recep- tacles for the sick, a somewhat similar plan should be acted upon at every public lunatic asylum. So far from considering, that the judicious admission of pupils, and of young men who are about completing their preliminary studies, to the wards of Bethlem Hospital, would prove injurious to the inmates, I believe, if properly regu- lated, such permission would even sometimes act advan- tageously. This opinion is founded upon the supposition, that the regular visits of the physicians, although accom- panied by pupils, would in some of the patients tend rather to distract the attention from their false reasoning, whilst in others it would appear as if bringing them in contact with the external world, and so produce a more favourable impression upon their disordered imaginations. Besides the appearance thus given to the establishment, of being some- what like an ordinary hospital, for the restoration to health of its inmates, instead of a common mad house, in which all contact with the world outside its walls is generally cut off, might have a favourable impression ; especially as it is a well known observation, that the fear of being placed in a lunatic asylum, often exerts an injurious influence upon the minds even of the insane ; to say nothing of the very disagreeable associations, which it produces upon friends and relatives. Formerly, it was the general practice, to exclude lunatics as much as possible, from all contact with their fellow-men, and even in many instances, to consign such unfortunate beings to beds of straw, to chains, and in dungeons. Happily, however, in this country at least, such cruelties are now almost unknown, especially in the Metropolitan dis- tricts, where a more humane, as well as a more successful mode of management, is at present pursued. At the same time, as a writer observes, the more lunatics are con- gregated together in the same place, so will the advantages appear, of exercising their remaining intelligence, by slight occupations or distractions; for if left entirely to themselves, insane patients are very apt to be seized with some fixed, and generally erroneous ideas; whereby they are apt to become indifferent, and to impose little or no restraint to indul- gence in their false impressions. But when their train of false ideas are interrupted by other impressions, and if the lunatic be called upon to take a more or less active part in some intellectual occupation, the mental faculties of the insane, may be thus considerably awakened, and their judgment even improved, so as to promote the patient's