Lectures on madness in its medical, legal, and social aspects / by Edgar Sheppard.

Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on madness in its medical, legal, and social aspects / by Edgar Sheppard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    42/228 page 30
    ment of tlio kind proposed—demanding self-sacrifice, and freedom from the busy turmoil which has become second natm’e. When the disease, however, which you have correctly but uselessly diagnosed, culminates in a fit, or in some overt act, or in utterly uncontrollable excitement and extravagance, the friends are alarmed) they retrace their stej)s, and recall the things which you have previously spoken of as evidences of insanity ; at last they j^ut two and two together, and find that it makes four! But the time for all active treatment is now gone by ] you may palliate and assuage, but you cannot em’e. The disease stands before you, as it were, triumphantly and defiantly, and seems to say, “ I came, I saw, I conquered ! ” I do not know that I can better conclude this introductory lecture than by assm’ing you that the insane members of the community are, as a class, the best cared for and best j^rotected in the country. In spite of what you may sometimes hear to the contrary; in spite of the occasional cases of ill-treat- ment (generally greatly exaggerated for sensational purposes by the ju'ess) you may accept this as a verity. For half a century and more we have been moving in one direction, to humanize everything that has relation to those who from disease are no longer responsible agents. It is wise and right that it should bo so. The gathering together of the loose and scattered madness of the country has been a great achievement. Unfortunately there is now a
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3