The history of the first inebriate asylum in the world / by its founder [Jonathan Edward Turner]. An account of his indictment, also a sketch of the Woman's national hospital, by its founder.

Turner, J. Edward, 1822-1889.

Date:: 1888

Credit: The history of the first inebriate asylum in the world / by its founder [Jonathan Edward Turner]. An account of his indictment, also a sketch of the Woman's national hospital, by its founder. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$couviiiced tliat society M’oiild be injured by declaring the drunkard an irresponsible being. Threeapiarters ot the criiniuals who are tried would enter the plea of inebriety as a defence for their crimes.” It is less than a century since similar arguments were used amainst the medical treatment for the insane as instituted by the al)le and humane Pinel of Paris. His work has touched the chord of human sympathy throughout the ci\ ilized world, and his insj)iration, left to mankind as a legacy, has brought into being more than a thousand insane asylums, thus, at last, making it possible to treat and to cure the “ mind diseased.” When Pinel, in 1794, began his work of convincing the leading men of France of the necessity of establishing a hospital for the insane, the very first argument against his grand project ■was that the insane person is a devil, a demon, a criminal who should be locked up in dungeons, and loaded with chains; and that the well being of society demanded this treatment. Twenty years after Pinel’s appeal to France in behalf of his humane enterprise, the good j^eople of IMassachusetts began to agitate the subject of building an insane asylum. The leading journals of that day opposed the undertaking, arguing that the building of insane asylums would have the tendency to increase lunacy and to multiply crime. Such was the intelligence of the editors of Massachusetts seventy years ago' The next law for the relief of the Asylum, written by the .Hon. Reuben H)nle Walworth, pi-esident of the cor[)oration, was passed by the legislature on A])ril 2d, 1861. The measure excited a strong and determined opposition on the part of some of the leading members of the House and Senate. These gentlemen argued that the bill, if passed, would give the institution a perj^etual 4$