Observations on the admission of medical pupils to the wards of Bethlem Hospital, for the purposes of studying mental diseases / [John Webster].

  • Webster, John, 1795-1876.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the admission of medical pupils to the wards of Bethlem Hospital, for the purposes of studying mental diseases / [John Webster]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    continuing a discussion on the above subject, being confi¬ dent, should the proposition fail in obtaining the sanction of the Governors generally, after due consideration, it will as much arise from the anticipated difficulty of carrying into effect the proposed change, as from any inherent objections really affecting such an innovation, although admitted to possess many advantages. As insanity materially afreets not only the mental and phy¬ sical health, but the civil status of its victims, few subjects are, consequently, more deserving of attention, by the philan¬ thropist or the physician, than this complaint; and if pro¬ perly investigated by the zealous student, much may be done to alleviate so serious a malady, when unable wholly to counteract the injurious effects, it produces upon the human constitution. The restoration to reason of a fellow- creature affected with lunacy, is an object meriting the at¬ tention of every medical practitioner, with a view to the cure ot this malady. And since few diseases impose occasion¬ ally so much responsibility upon the attending physician as mania, whether the case be considered in a medical or legal sense, very serious consequences may sometimes result to the patients or the relatives, should even a trifling mistake be committed by the attendant. Examples of errors in judg¬ ment of the most painful description, might be quoted from books and public records,to shew the important consequences sometimes resulting to a fellow-creature, from inattention to the premonitory symptoms of mania. But it is unnecessary to enter into details, since it will be readily allowed by those conversant with the subject, that scarcely any complaint to which mankind is liable, deserves more to be studied than diseases of the mind ; in order to alleviate, when unable to cure, the attacks of such a deplorable affliction to huma¬ nity as mental alienation, which destroys, as it were, the moral existence of a fellow*creature, although physical life, with all its wonderful functions, still continues to animate this mortal frame. In order to place the question at issue in a o roper light, it appears useful, previously to examine into the actual state of medical education generally pursued in this country; respecting the study of mental diseases; because, if the means for acquiring information and experience, on so im¬ portant a malady as insanity, be as defective, as I believe them to be actually, the necessity for some alteration, in the present system, becomes consequently more imperative.