A letter to the Right Honourable the Earl of Shaftesbury etc. etc. etc. on the laws which regulate private lunatic asylums : with a comparative view of the process 'de lunatico inquirendo' in England and the law of 'interdiction' in France : to which are added a few observations on the causes of insanity and improvement in its treatment during the last twenty-five years / by Edward J. Seymour.

Seymour, Edward J. (Edward James), 1796-1866.

Date:: 1859

Credit: A letter to the Right Honourable the Earl of Shaftesbury etc. etc. etc. on the laws which regulate private lunatic asylums : with a comparative view of the process 'de lunatico inquirendo' in England and the law of 'interdiction' in France : to which are added a few observations on the causes of insanity and improvement in its treatment during the last twenty-five years / by Edward J. Seymour. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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P- minds of relations, especially female ones, are warmly alive to this heavy visitation; after a short time themalady jj,' continuing, they relax in their attentions ; some remove 'r. to a distance, some die, and at length any visits to the patients, in which complaints may be made, right or J wrong, disappear. I knew of an old French gentleman who recovered after seventy years of age, and it was with the greatest difficulty any one could be found who i'; knew any thing about him. He was released and re- turned to France. Another case was of a lady who without any doubt had been insane, but the person who authorised her detention was dead. The near relative and executor died ; she had some fortune by accumulation, but could not have the benefit of it, and was maintained by the-ij she placed him in a lunatic asylum of the best kind without con- ■*! ferring with his sisters, his brother, or his mother. When the brother-in-law, alarmed at the imputation of insanity in ,i his family, went to see him, he was met by an order from the lady i' not to permit him to see any one, nor correspond, except through her v He was shown the patient from a bed-room window. At length strong measures being taken, an investigation proved that his insane ideas had their origin in drink. Witnesses were • found in every stage of the illness who had seen him drunk ; and f these circumstances, and time, contributed greatly to establish a : frame of mind which enabled a jury to pronounce liim of sane mind. ';-i But the expense was great, and might have been saved, but for the strong pressure exercised in the first instance to prevent his friends’!'!' visits. ; The answer to this is, that the nature of the imputations made the ' lady anxious to restrain as much as possible the publicity, that she ' was not on good terms with her husband’s family, that she believed i ' they would hamper her in what she thought was for her husband’s good, &c.; but the result was great annoyance to the patient, real ■' obstacle to his friends inquiring into liis case, and an expensive trial,= ;' ending in an alienation which might have been avoided. ' n 3

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