The moral treatment of the insane : a lecture / by W.A.F. Browne.

  • William A. F. Browne
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The moral treatment of the insane : a lecture / by W.A.F. Browne. 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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    fully tested. The general refractory class is broken up into smaller sections, the foci of agitation or conspiracy are separated, and Die fragments consorted in different rooms and galleries ; but apart from the general population. Such a recommendation can apply oidy to a large establishment. In the female department of an asvlum of this class, where the experiment has been in operation for years, not only does comparative order prevail, but the destructive propensity is dormant in the midst of mu-rors, prints, turtle-doves, &c. Such accidents give, to a limited extent, a fluctuating character to the different sodalities in an asylum j but from the large number of chronic cases which accumulate, there is a permanent and sta- tionary basis or stock which is of great utility in manipulating the details of classification. It forms a sort of conservative body, whose tendency is, upon the whole, to support constituted authori- ties and regular government. Promotion to it is a coveted honour; expulsion from it is a disgrace. It receives and drills recruits and convalescents. It is a depository of the customs and traditions of the place. It is the great resource and nursery for amusements, lectures, schools, monster meetings, pic-nics, matches at bowls, and cricket. In the original formation of such associations the amount of education and refinement should never be forgotten. The insane may lose reason and retain acquhements and accomplishments. They may be men of profound erudition and gross delusions. They may be highly pohshed, or utterly illiterate. Now it may occasion- ally be a stroke of moral art or skill to commit the ignorant to the learned as a pupil, or a block to hew out; or to provide the occu- pation of teaching; or to repress the arrogance of pedantry by the common sense or modesty of common place; but, in general, it is prudent to bring together those who are nearly upon an equality as to knowledge, however varied the direction of their studies may have been. Such a common tie unites, it promotes intercourse and congeniality ; it may afford reciprocal assistance, and should differ- ences of opinion and controversies or jealousies ai’ise, the anta- gonism thus produced is not foreign to the normal and healthy con- dition of the parties. I have known the behef in hallucinations shaken by w'itnessing the palpable incongruity of such thoughts in another, and by the arguments and expositions of a man declaring himself to be the Hvmg God. I have hstened to a lecture by a maniacal clergyman to his feUow-patients, who dwelt with unction and zeal u])on Bacon's sources of error in reasoning. “ A keen and unanswerable stroke of pleasantry,” says Pine), seemed best adapted to correct the wdiim that he had been guillotined, but the executioner being allowed to replace his head, unfortunately put that of another victim in its place. Another convalescent, of a gay and face- tious humour, instructed in the part he was to play in this comedy, adroitly turned the conversation to the subject of the miracle of St.