Observations on the deranged manifestations of the mind, or insanity / by J.G. Spurzheim, M.D.

  • Johann Spurzheim
Date:
1833 [©1833]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the deranged manifestations of the mind, or insanity / by J.G. Spurzheim, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    Lunatic Asylums. These are numerous and increasing, and are well conducted in England, Ireland and Scotland. But this is only recently the case. Until a short period the insane belonging to the poorer class have been crowded into public workhouses, or shut up in houses of correction or in prisons ; and associated with thieves and murder- ers. This practice still prevails in many countries, and I fear it does to a great degree in our own. Instead of being classed as they should be with the sick and infirm they are treated often as criminals. In France, lunatics have long been well treated, and consid- ered as sick persons and attended upon in hospitals by the bro- thers and sisters of the religious order of La Charite. In the Netherlands the insane are exceedingly well provided for, but in several other of the northern continental States they are not. In Hanover, according to Halliday, the whole of the luna- tics of the kingdom are shut up in the national prison at Celle. In Prussia, the lunatic hospitals are well conducted, as well as a]l the charitable establishments of that country. In Spain and Portugal are lunatic asylums, where the inmates are kindly attended by friars and nuns, but little is done in way of cure. Insanity is not however very prevalent in those countries. In Italy are several excellent establishments for lunatics, es- pecially at Milan and Naples. Austria has not made the im- provement in the treatment of the insane, which the neighboring countries have. Dr. Burrows says, the present lunatic establish- ment at Vienna is a disgrace to the capital and the era of the nine- teenth century. It may be truly said however of all countries, that asylums for the insane are too few. Though by an act of Parliament in 1806, the magistrates of the several counties in England and Wales, were authorised to erect asylums for the insane poor, yet many counties still remain destitute, and the insane still suffer for want of care. In the United States are a few asylums, and well con-