Thirty-fifth annual report of the Suffolk Lunatic Asylum : December, 1872.

  • Suffolk Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
[1873]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thirty-fifth annual report of the Suffolk Lunatic Asylum : December, 1872. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    biographical records, as individual developments of heart and mind, give some insight into our daily life ; and they afford a proof that there is not altogether discomfort among us. It is not to trifle with or burlesque these proofs of internal quietude that they are introduced, but to show what is honestly representative of Asylum life associations among insane inmates. In the desire to afford the utmost publicity, and to urge the utmost minute inspection, of every patient’s state and condition, associations, and habits of life, it needs some caution to guard them against being subjected to visits of mere curiosity, from fantastic or frivolous motives. Sensitive feelings may be hurt by coarse observations. A patient suffering from religious melancholia, overheard'an injudi¬ cious visitor give her a very indelicate cognomen. A painful impression was left upon her mind which it required some time to remove. When we feel as Christian men how little we can do in the service of God, by our efforts to show kindness to His afflicted poor, we may well be impressed with the sacred duty demanded of all those who have not only to guide the erring mind, but to guard the finer feelings. There is as much exquisite propriety and tenderness in applying to the sensitiveness of an insane mind, as to the sorrows of a penitent spirit, that glorious canon of truth itself, as well as of its Author, “ a bruised reed shall He not break and smoking flax shall He not quench.” In one of the earliest Reports, read more than thirty years ago, the Superintendent expressed his resolve, that for the real welfare of those who were entrusted to his care the non-restraint principle should be consistently carried out, that constant employment should be actively promoted, and a liberal diet unreservedly secured. His continued efforts have been to keep this resolve in mind, endeavouring to follow the great intention of nature herself, to lead men in general out of a mere physical and animal state, into what