A treatise on the nature, symptoms, causes, and treatment of insanity : with practical observations on lunatic asylums and a description of the Pauper Lunatic Asylum for the county of Middlesex, at Hanwell.

  • Ellis, William Charles, Sir, 1780-1839.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the nature, symptoms, causes, and treatment of insanity : with practical observations on lunatic asylums and a description of the Pauper Lunatic Asylum for the county of Middlesex, at Hanwell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    210/362 (page 196)
    attempts to wring her hands or to repeat her moan- ing : when she does, a hint that she must be removed from her nurse—to whom she is much attached—and again sent into the garden, is quite sufficient to recall her to order. But it is impos- sible to point out the various modes of acting, according to this principle, on the minds of the patients. They are as diversified as the tempera- ments, dispositions, and habits of each individual. An account of the various species of employment adopted at the asylum at Hanwell, and of the means practically used to engage the attention of the patients in them, will be given in a subsequent chapter. Considerable tact is required in adapting the particular kind of occupation to the tastes of the patients. They are usually more easily induced to work at the trades to which they have been brought up, than to turn their attention to pursuits entirely new. Most men seem to have a natural fondness for farming and gardening, and these occupations have this great advantage, that there are certain portions of the labour in them, in which a violent or suicidal patient may be employed, without being entrusted with any tools by which he might either injure him- self or others. But so important do I consider the diverting the mind by employment, that where the patient cannot be induced thus to occupy himself, or where the occupation is too mechanical to keep the mind interested, I do not hesitate, with proper precautions, to intrust him with tools, even where