State of the Lincoln Lunatic Asylum (instituted November 4, 1819) : [eighteenth report].

  • Lincoln Lunatic Asylum (Lincoln, England)
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: State of the Lincoln Lunatic Asylum (instituted November 4, 1819) : [eighteenth report]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    sustaining causes, must be considered in practice as so many dis¬ tinct species of disease. Nor should the great rarity of Insanity originating in the disturbance of certain functions, or from rarely occurring causes, at all prevent them from being studied as objects of distinct treatment.* The phenomena will often depend upon the temperament, the natural constitution, and previous habits of the individual, and will often vary in the same case ; and yet writers on the subject have based their Classifications upon these fluctuating phenome¬ na. Among the whole it may be affirmed, that none of them can be considered as founded on known pathological distinctions, except perhaps what may be termed intellectual lunacy, imbecility, and connate fatuity. But the prospect is very different when we turn to the results, arising from an improved general economy in the management of the Insane. Nature has powerful restorative tendencies here, as in all other cases; and Lunatics have recovered under the most opposite, and even hostile modes of treatment. These improve¬ ments have been negative rather than positive, and have consisted in giving nature free play, and removing, as far as possible, all ob¬ structions to her healthy action. It is now established that a vast number of recoveries are effected, without any specific medical treatment, beyond such as is required in ordinary life : and that these important results have arisen from attention to some plain and obvious principles. •—Patients should be kept comfortably warm, and not subjected to great changes of temperature ; they should be in the open air to the utmost extent that the state of the weather will allow; they should adopt regular hours, regular meals, and regular habits *The “Form of Admission” to the Lincoln Asylum is particular in its en¬ quiry, as to the supposed immediate or remote causes, and enumerates several as possible; though it must he allowed that the effects of Insanity are some¬ times mistaken for causes; and it must also be allowed that there is a tend¬ ency in Insanity, sometimes to increase the operation of an exciting cause, as in Drunkenness, Fanaticism, &.c. The enquiry runs thus; [see Appendix A,]