A letter to the governors of Bethlem Hospital containing an account of their management of that institution for the last twenty years ... with a ... narrative of the confinement of James Norris ... Part 1. / by John Haslam.

Date:
1818
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the governors of Bethlem Hospital containing an account of their management of that institution for the last twenty years ... with a ... narrative of the confinement of James Norris ... Part 1. / by John Haslam. 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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    Imd manifesting a most ferocious and malignant clls^ position, was continued in the hospital as a dangerous and incurable lunatic, and placed on that establish- ment on the 14th of February, of the following year; From the peculiar construction of his wrists, which prevented him from being secured by manacles, hd was subjected, by your orders, and by the sanction of your authority, to a novel and rigorous mode of restraint, in preference to the mild and humane con- trivance which I had proposed for his security and comfort. To avoid unnecessary repetition, these cir- cumstances will be accurately detailed as the narrative advances. In the year 1814, the case of Norris Was mentioned in the House of Commons, in terms which conveyed the severest reprehension of the manner in which he was confined. .These animadversions were properly, and, I believe, accurately reported in the daily and weekly newspapers. In a very short time the case Of Norris was generally circulatedj his por- trait was exhibited in many of the print-shops, toge- ther with the iron apparatus by which he was pinioned, and to which he was fastened. At length the Secretary of State,* astonished at your supineness and indiffer* ence, when the reputation of the hospital was attacked from all quarters, urged you to an investigation, for your own credit, as the guardians of an hospital of royal endowment, and for the satisfaction of the * “ The charge appeared so formidable that the Secretary of State for the Home Department made a re^lar official communication to the Governors on the subject.”—Mr.Upton's Pamphlet, p. 8. y