Remarks upon the report of the Metropolitan Commissioners on Lunatic Asylums.

Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks upon the report of the Metropolitan Commissioners on Lunatic Asylums. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    It appears that our ancestors devoted a few cells, in each mo¬ nastic establishment, for the confinement of violent or dangerous lunatics. This was the only provision at that time existing; the cells were strongly built, oftentimes underground, in them the afflicted creatures were bound in chains, and often subjected to the application of the lash, which, in the hand of the believer in the presence of an evil spirit, we can imagine would not be used either sparingly or gently. In these strong rooms were confined those only whose insanity prompted them to act wrongly; whilst the larger proportion, who from their derangement merely thought wrongly, were allowed to wander at large, and by their follies and fantasies to engage the interest of those amongst whom they lived. In the 6 Utopia ’ Sir T. More remarks : “ They take great pleasure in fools, and as it is thought a base and unbecoming thing to use them ill, so they do not think it amiss for people to divert themselves with their folly; and they think this is a great advantage to the fools themselves; for if men were so sullen and severe as not at all to please themselves with their ridicu¬ lous behaviour and foolish sayings, which is all they can do to re¬ commend themselves to others, it could not be expected that they would be so well looked to, nor so tenderly used as they must other¬ wise be.” Such, then, in former days was the provision for the insane. The deranged in conduct were provided with strong cells, and this being the only provision for those afflicted persons, it is natural to suppose that whenever it was increased so as to take in all forms of insanity, little or no material change would be made in the style of constructing the building destined for their reception; and hence our gloomy and prison-like edifices. We are probably not far wrong in conjecturing this to be the origin of our massive and strongly-built edifices for receiving the afflicted with disorders of the mind. We may probably be also allowed to believe the system of flogging formerly practised in the treatment of insanity, to have been handed down to us by our monkish fathers, who doubtless used the whip not only as an act of penance on their own bodies, but also as a corrective to their demented charge. After describing the various changes of lunatic asylums already established, the Commissioners proceed to remark on the construc¬ tion of these buildings, as follows:— “ Although we have no wish to advocate the erection of unsightly buildings, we think that no unnecessary cost should be incurred for architectural decoration; especially as these asylums are erected for persons, who, when in health, are accustomed to dwell in cottages. “ The best union workhouses have in general cost not more than
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