The Press.
London, England, 1858-08-28 00:00:00

TIIE LUNACY QUESTION.

THERE is something so horrible and dreadful in
the notion of a sane human being actually being
shut up in a lunatic asylum, that it is no wonder,
when there seems good ground to fear that
such events do take place, that an alarm should
be created, and that the most stringent measures
should be called for to prevent the recurrence, or
continuance of similar cruelties. It is well that
thus it should be, and we are glad, therefore, to see
that the public mind is aroused to the necessity
of a more vigilant inspection being established
over private asylums.
The cases of alleged lunacy which have re-
cently appeared in the newspapers, coupled with
certain admissions from the Commissioners of
Lunacy, which prima facie, until explained, appear
to imply considerable dereliction of duty on their
part, evidently call for some change in the existing
system ; but at the same time great care should
be taken not to rush into an opposite extreme,
which may be productive of great public mischief.
The difficulty of placing restraint upon persons
who are really insane is, we believe, at present
greater than it ought to be, and in confirmation
of this opinion we appeal to the constant reports
contained in the newspapers of deeds of horror
which are perpetrated by madmen who have been
left in possession of their liberty, and the number-
less suicides which the coroners inquests return
as done by persons who are insane. These
events prove, at any rate, that if some persons
who ought to be free are confined, yet that

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numbers of persons, who are allowed to go free,
ought to have been subjected to restraint.
Now, we loathe and condemn, as strongly as any
one, the conduct of those, who, taking advantage
of their position as relatives, for their own ends,
consign an unhappy individual, who is really sane,
to the walls of a lunatic asylum. It is, perhaps,
more than anything else calculated to drive a
man niad ; and if our contemporaries were only
directing their energies to cause measures to be
taken to prevent so monstrous and fearful an out-
rage being ever again committed, or prolonged,
we should have not one word of caution to say
against the tone and object of their articles.
But it appears to us that, by the cry which
sonic of them are raising against private asylums,
and by the obstacles which they would raise to
the imposing restraint upon auy person, they are
running the risk of creating a far greater evil
than the one which they are desirous of remedy-
ing ; for, if the amount of human suffering now
arising from the improper confinement of sane
persons were to be weighed with the amount of
suffering occasioned by the liberty possessed by
insane persons, it would probably be found that
the suffering arising from the latter cause is
twenty-fold greater than that arisint, from the
former : for, even under the present law, and its
admitted defective administration, the difficulty
of placing restraint—arising from the unwilling-
ness of friends and relations to have recourse to
so extreme a measure, and their ignorance how
to set about it—is so great that hundreds, more
probably thousands, of persons who ought to be
restrained are at full liberty, to the great danger
of their own lives, and those of their families, and
neighbours.
IVhen a neighbourhood has been horrified by
some frightful catastrophe, there is no lack of
persons to cry shame on the relatives of the
unhappy being, whose frenzy occasioned it. They
are condemned for having shrunk from the
discharge of a disagreeable duty, and for having
preferre the chance of an awful crime being
committed to incurring the responsibility of
preventing it. flow many families are there at
this present moment, where the wretched wife and
children lie in daily dread of some murderous
assault on themselves, or of the realization of
suicidal propensities ? If the relatives of the
criminal lunatics now in Bedlam had done
their duty, many a valuable life would have been
spared.
IVe therefore deliberately affirm that we
believe, so far from its being advisable to
increase the difficulties of placing restraint on
half, or wholly insane individuals, increased
tiicilities, if possible, should be given in order to
enable it to be done. None but those who have
passed through the ordeal can tell the fearful
amount of terror, and anxiety, which a family has
to go through, from the first indications of the
complaint, till its complete establishment admits
of no doubt. There are few individuals, not in
their right mind, who are not capable of talking on
various subjects with the most perfect sanity and
calmness. The intellectual powers of insane
persons are not unfrequently greater than they
were before their calamity came upon them and
persons whom their own family know perfectly
well to be insane will conduct themselves towards
acquaintances as sanely and agreeably as ever.

Now one of the demands which is being made
is to give more publicity to cases of insanity.
The effect of so doing will be most disastrous,
both to the sufferer and to his family. Every
professional man, who has to deal with the
malady, will tell you that the chances of recovery
mainly depend upon early treatment of the case.
If the friends of a person know that they can
onlv cause him to be subject to medical treatment,
at the expense of his being, for ever after, publicly
branded, as having been insane, how much more
will they shrink from the early measures neces-
sary for his restoration than they do at present ?
How long will it be before an affectionate wife,
or parent, or child will bring themselves to take
the fatal step which shall fix for ever a public
brand upon the husband, the child, or the
parent ? and yet by the delay the evil day may
be only postponed, at the same time destroying
the hist chance of recovery.

These are considerations of the most important
nature, which, in dealing with so distressing and
delicate a subject, should never be lost sight of;
and in amending the present system, which the
recent cases render imperative, care ought