A letter to the Right Honourable Earl Fitzwilliam ... respecting the investigation which has lately taken place, into the abuses at the York Lunatic Asylum / by Godfrey Higgins. Together with various letters, reports, &c. and the new code of regulations for its future management.

  • Higgins, Godfrey, 1773-1833.
Date:
1814
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the Right Honourable Earl Fitzwilliam ... respecting the investigation which has lately taken place, into the abuses at the York Lunatic Asylum / by Godfrey Higgins. Together with various letters, reports, &c. and the new code of regulations for its future management. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    apprehend that the evidence of such an individual stands nearly on the same footing, as to credibility, with that of an accomplice, or hired spy : it ought not, I allow, to be taken alone, but I think it must be believed, whether ad- mitted as evidence or not, whenever it is confirmed by a sufficient number of corroborating circumstances. Win. Vickers, for instance, repeatedly declared to the people who visited him, that he was flogged, and they observed marks like the thong of the lash upon his back. A female patient, on one occasion, brought to them from another part of the house, who could not have had any previous correspondence with Vickers, declared that she had been flogged also. Upon such testimony it seems to me to be perfectly credible, notwithstanding the fact has been de- nied, that flogging constituted a part of the treatment of the unfortunate sufferers confined in that house. Permit me to state another case.—If nine out of ten of all those of both sexes who leave the Quakers' Retreat declare that they have been kindly treated, will any one doubt that a system of kind treatment generally prevails there ? If nine out of ten, on the other hand, who leave the Asylum, declare they have been cruelly used, can any one doubt that means of cruelty have certainly been resorted to ? I must further, my Lord, enter my protest against another doctrine, which has been established of late years, principally, I am persuaded, by the physicians and keepers of mad-houses, viz. that lunatics always hate their keepers. It ought not to be forgotten, that such physicians are inte- rested witnesses, that they have a powerful inducement to support this doctrine, in order to screen themselves from the effects of mere accident, to which mad-houses are so liable, even though the superintendants themselves may be conscious that they are not guilty of any criminal neglect. It seems to me to be highly expedient, that, before any recovered lunatic should be discharged from confinement, he ought to be questioned, as to his treatment, by a com- mittee of persons properly authorised, who should decide upon each case according to its own peculiar merits and circumstances. If, for instance, complaints were more fre- quently made against one keeper than another, the indivi- duals, authorised to investigate the matter, would then be