Mental hospitals and the public : the need for closer co-operation / by Lt.-Colonel J.R. Lord, C.B.E., M.D., F.R.C.P. Edin.

  • Lord, J. R. (John Robert), 1874-1931
Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Mental hospitals and the public : the need for closer co-operation / by Lt.-Colonel J.R. Lord, C.B.E., M.D., F.R.C.P. Edin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Thus, in 1750 nearly tlie whole of the indigent mentally afflicted were either at e, living by such few wits as they possessed from birth or were left to them after .e acute attack, and subjected to the jeers, jibes, rough humour and sport—even violence and brutality—of the public; or, if considered dangerous, they were con- d by a magistrate’s order, under an Act dated 1744, in jails, houses of correction, r-houses and houses of industry, where they were in an infinitely worse plight a when at large. They were placed there not so much for their own welfare protection as for the safety of the public. [ do not propose to harrow the reader’s feelings with a description of the housing general treatment of these poor and mentally afflicted brothers and sisters, or he horrors of the then recognized medical treatment by restraint and repression, ch had existed since medieval times. In some of these institutions there were irate apartments for the insane, but as often as not vice, crime, misfortune, Ltal infirmity and chronic diseases of the most revolting kind were all sequestered ither and treated alike. The insane were, as a rule, chained or tied with ropes, tterably dirty, in filthy surroundings, with beds of straw rarely renewed, or l no beds at all save the cold stone floors. Often they were without any covering er by day or night. They were starved, not infrequently flogged, and sometimes jd. Of course the death-rate was enormous. The conditions at Bethlem and hel House and other hospitals were but little better, and the medical treatment he private houses or asylums was equally brutal, though housing conditions were arently not so appalling. The general public were callous to all this, but in this nection it must be remembered that it was difficult in those days to arouse the lie conscience. Travelling was expensive and dangerous and the means limited. ' Press had not developed to any extent. Still, the conditions generally must e been well known—certainly to the local authorities. John Howard [1726-1790] was probably the first to set the ball rolling towards >rm. In the famous report on his visits to the prisons throughout England, ch. he laid before Parliament in 1777, he drew attention to the shocking ditions he found in regard to the confinement there of idiots, imbeciles and atics. The bicentenary of his birth occurred last year, and the debt of gratitude nation owes to him is incalculable. The insanity of King George III and his treatment also drew public attention to subject of lunacy. Parliament had already inquired into the matter and the of 1744 had resulted, which was but a poor attempt to right the great wrong t existed.
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