An inquiry concerning the indications of insanity : with suggestions of the better protection and care of the insane / by John Conolly... now reprinted by photolithography with an introduction by Richard Hunter and Ida Macalpine.

  • John Conolly
Date:
1964
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry concerning the indications of insanity : with suggestions of the better protection and care of the insane / by John Conolly... now reprinted by photolithography with an introduction by Richard Hunter and Ida Macalpine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    28/510 (page 18)
    sanity;—and this is not the worst part of the evil; for even when a patient has suffered no aggravation of his disorder during its greatest severity, the danger is not passed : nay, it is increased as his convalescence advances; for when that otherwise happy change commences, the sights and sounds of a lunatic asylum hecome, if they were not before, both afflicting and unsalutary. That, during the unconfirmed stage of convalescence, when reason is struggling through the cloud which has obscured it, some mental diS well as medical treatment is required, is, I presume, what no man will deny, who has really ever thought upon the subject. But can it be applied—is it possible that it should be applied —in the generality of cases in our lunatic asylums ? A slight recollection of the circumstances in which a lunatic patient is placed, will furnish a ready ] answer to the question. I take the most favourable case for the asylum :— I will suppose a person to have been received into the establishment unconscious of the change,—a thing which happens very rarely. The patient is insensible, and suffers nothing. But this state will not last long. The patient recovers some degree of consciousness; his vehemence and passion abate ; or a load of despondency and horror begins to be cleared away from him. He tries, very feebly and imperfectly, to recover broken chains of