Copy 1

Observations on the medical treatment of insanity / By Edward J. Seymour.

  • Seymour, Edward J. (Edward James), 1796-1866.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the medical treatment of insanity / By Edward J. Seymour. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    energies in the treatment of a disease which may and can be cured. Do we see the extreme of this disease,—the patient raving, unconscious to the calls of nature, or, if conscious, only indulging in habits ab- horrent even to the brute creation—deprived not only of the mind of an immortal being, but even of that instinct which supplies its place among the lower animals,—yet such cases are curable. The following instance is related by Mr. Finch, a medical man, and the proprietor of a house for lunatics, at Laverstock, near Salisbury, in his evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons, in 1816 :— I can give you (says Mr. Finch) a very strong case of a patient [ had from St. Luke’s: he was a man of opulence, sent there as a pauper; he came to me afterwards as a gentleman. This man came to me a most miserable object from St. Luke’s, after having been there a twelvemonth, and discharged as incurable: he was so bad that he had lost nearly the use of his limbs: he walked upon his toes; he could scarcely get from the coach to my house; the muscles of his legs were contracted ; he was so nasty in himself that he ate his own feces, and would his own flesh, if he had not been prevented; he tore it immediately, as he came to me. I had to put him into a room
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