Report, together with the minutes of evidence, and an appendix of papers, from the committee : appointed to consider of provision being made for the better regulation of madhouses in England (ordered by the House of Commons, to be printed, 11th July, 1815) : each subject of evidence arranged under its distinct head / by J.B. Sharpe.

  • House of Commons
Date:
1815
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report, together with the minutes of evidence, and an appendix of papers, from the committee : appointed to consider of provision being made for the better regulation of madhouses in England (ordered by the House of Commons, to be printed, 11th July, 1815) : each subject of evidence arranged under its distinct head / by J.B. Sharpe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    66/590 (page 48)
    formed he was enabled to raise himself, so as to stand against the wall, on the pillow of his bed in the trough bed in which he lay; but it is impossible for him to advance from the wall in which the iron bar is soldered, on account of the shortness of his chains, which were only twelve inches long. It was, I conceive, equally out of his power to repose in any other position than on his back, the projections which on each side of the waist bar in- closed his arms, rendering it impossible for him to lie on his side, even if the length of the chains from his neck and shoulders would permit it. His right leg was chained to the trough; in which he had remained thus encaged and chained more than twelve years. To prove the unnecessary restraint inflicted on this unfortunate man, he informed us that he had for some years been able to withdraw his arms from the manacles which encom- passed them. He then withdrew one of them, and observing an expression of surprise, he said, that when his arms were with- drawn he was compelled to rest them on the edges of the circu- lar projections^ which was more painful than keeping them with- in. His position, we were informed, was mostly lying down, and that as it was inconvenient to raise himself and stand upright, he very seldom did so; that he read a great deal of books of all kinds, history, lives, or any thing that the keepers could get him; the newspaper every day, and conversed perfectly coherent on the passing topics and events of the war, in which he felt parti- cular interest. On each day that we saw him he discoursed coolly, and gave rational and deliberate answers to the different questions put to him. The whole of this statement relative to William Norris was confirmed by the keepers. On Wednesday the 7th of June, when we again visited Bethlem, we discovered that all the male patients who were then naked and chained to their beds in their cells, were in that situation by way of punish- ment for misbehaviour, and not from disease. In consequence of the discovery made by the gentlemen who went with me, and myself, of the situation of William Norris, and of a drawing which we procured to be made of him in his irons, he was visit- ed by the following gentlemen:—George Holme Sumner, Esq. M.P. Lord Robert Seymour, M. P. William Smith, Esq. M.P. the Hon. Henry Grey Bennet, M. P. R. J. Lambton, Esq. M. P. Thomas Thompson, Esq. M. P. and other Members of the House of Commons; and 1 have now to state that, at this last visit, I observed that the whole of the irons had been re- moved from Norris's body, and that the length of chain from his neck, which was only twelve inches, had been doubled. [The Witness delivered in the Dratving of William Norris, re- ferred to in his Answer.']