On the amendment of the Law of Lunacy : a letter to Lord Brougham / by a phrenologist.

  • Tichborne, Thomas.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the amendment of the Law of Lunacy : a letter to Lord Brougham / by a phrenologist. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    I AMENDMENT OF THE LAW OF LUNACY. “ Quse Isedunt oculos festinas dernere ; si quid Est animuSy differs curandi tempus in annum'^—Hor. “ Pro super!! quantum mortalia pectora caecae Noctis habent!”—Ovid. My Lord,— If I were solely to consider the contrast which our re- spective situations in life affords — your exalted position* and the very humble and very obscure one which I occupy in Her Majesty’s service, I should he overwhelmed with confusion at the idea of addressing your Lordship upon the subject of insanity; but, when I reflect that the talents of the greatest of men are bestowed upon them with the design of securing to them, when rightly directed, their own happiness, and also of enabling them to promote the happi- ness of their less gifted fellow creatures, I confess my spirits revive, and I am not without hope your Lordship, however lame and defective may be my present attempt, will forgive me for intruding my thoughts upon you in the cause of prostrated humanity, and that, too, without your mistaking this procedure to be the result of impertinence, instead of, as it is, the consequence of a long and deliberate conviction. It is now nearly thirteen years ago since I ventured to for- ward to your Lordship, from Portsmouth, a pamphlet entitled*]* “ The Anatomy of Prejudice,” in which some allusions are made to in- sanity, and to which a subsequently rather varied intercourse with some of the ablest medical men who have paid great attention to insanity, not merely in this country but on the Continent, as well as in the United States, has induced me to attach still greater importance; indeed, so much so, that I cannot but feel, in common with the enlight- ened and humane individuals above referred to, that the present state of the Law of Lunacy is a disgrace to the age—flagrantly in violation of all sound and enlightened medical experience, and pre-eminently demanding all the energies of even your master mind ; and permit me, my Lord, to add, whatever may have been your glorious exertions to * Eote by Printer's Devil.—One of his Lordship’s predecessors on the NVoolsack—“ the greatest but meanest of mankind”—Lord Bacon, has long since taught the uninitiated that “ the road to honour is by a crooked path.” Query—Is it not too often a very dirty one ? Miror, sed non invideo ! t Johnson and Jacob, Winchester.