The Sun.
London, England, 1840-12-04 00:00:00

EVEN ING EDITION.

LUNATIC ASYLUMS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sin,—l hope you wiU find ti c inc o-cd of sufficient
iaterest to give it a place in your spirited Journal. The
Lancet is devoted almost exclusively to the medical
profession, and the subject to which my appeal refers
being of general importance, it should col, in the opi-
nion of my ;rinds, be confined to one class of society.
Dr. Birkbeek most kindly and fuily sanctioned me to
publish his letter, and having his decided approval of
the course I am pursuing in making my case known to
the public, I feel encouraged to proceed, and have
therefore taken the liberty of troubling you. By com-
plying with you will oblige,
Sir, your's respectfully,
SARAH NEWELL.
Upper Grafton-street, Fitzroy-square, Dec. 3, 1840.

LETTER FROM DR. BIRKBECK TO MISS NENVELL.

38, Finsbury-square, Nov. 5, 1840.

DEAR MADAM—I do not know to what purpose you
intend to apply the manuscript, which, after a careful
perus ►I, I now return ; that it may with propriety be
published, I cannot doubt ; and, in so far as it may
draw the attention of the humane portion of the public
to the important subject to which it refers,its publication
must do good. They who know you will not hesitate
to brlieve your assertions ; and they who do not, may
be induced to inquire as to the certainty of your havi►►g
endured the sufferings and privations of which you com-
plain. It is at ad times most useful to direct the eyes
of the humane and intelligent towards the management
of establishments so liab!e to abuse as the asylums,
whether public or private, for the reception of the un-
fortunate individuals having an insane state of r&nd.
With bet regards,

I remain, dear Madam, very truly your's,
To Miss Newell. GEORGE BIRKBECK.

At various times within the last twenty years I have
endeavoured, by all the means in my power, to draw -
the attention of the public to the injustice that I, as
well as others, have been, and are now, labouring un- .
der, from having the stigma of insanity attached to us, ,
because, having been inmates in a lunatic asylum, we
dare to mention the woeful fact. Only those who are, or
have been under this ban, can adequately comprehend
the Effects that such a galling yoke has upon the mind.
No allusion to the base tyranny we have been subjected
to must be made, or a prejudicial suspicion immedi-
ately arisee.

• A sense of the great loss of time with regard to my
profession as an artist, and the injurious effects which
have influenced the events of my life, through the blind-
ness and wilful ignorance which have existed, seed do
still exist, in reference to insanity, induce me to pre-
sent my individual case to the kind attention of the in-
tellectual and the humane, but mare particularly to the
Christian public, with a view that some effort may be
made to divest the mind's aberration of that fatal mys-
tery in which it has been involved. By a steady per-
severance in the duties which have devolved upon me,
both of a public, so far as my profession is concerned,
and also of a private nature, those obstacles which at first
appeared most formidable are completely overcome, and
I now feel myself on ground sufficiently good to make an
appeal to my friends for that sympathy which
I may, with some propriety, expect from them.
Is it consistent with the principles of any one
professing moral feeling and sound reason to
withhold their patronage from me, because I have been
circumstaaced as I haves Yet such 1 am told is
really the fact, because I persist in my determination
to expose the abuses I am acquainted with. If the
causes of my former sufferings were properly investigated,
as I hesitate nit to say they ought to be, especially by
physicians, and those who profess to understand the
intricacies of mental operations, the errors of that sys-
tem which has been the means, in numberless instances,
of uprooting the peace and order of social life would
be clearly seen.
At about the age of seventeen, I commenced
painting miniature likenesses amongst my friends
and acquaintances, having taken my own like-
ness without any instruction. My friends, believ-
ing that I had a taste for the art, allowed me to have
some lessons in miniature painting, with a view
to making that department of art my profes-
sion. I afterwards made great progress, and took
much delight in toy pencil ; but the limited means of
my dear Lther, who, nevertheless, was in a re-
spectable line of business, was a great hairier to my
advancement. About this time I became acquainted
with a family whose mental acquirements attracted my
attention, and greatly excited my intellect. Having
made some proficiency in music, I felt sure that I could,
with a little exertion, support myself without the aid of
my parents. I, therefore, showed a more independent
spirit than I had ever before evinced ; and having a
consciousness of possessing natural talents which had
hitherto been unobserved, but called into exercise by
the stimulus of my new acquaintances, I manifested an
air of independence, which could not he com-
prehended by those who bad heretofore consi-
dered me a simple, common-place girl. My
unobtrusiveness and timidity from childhood had
been remarkable, therefore to speak and net
as though I could do both without depending upon
another appeared like insanity. My friends were ad-
vised to apply to a medical man for his advice, which
they did, and, although he was a physician of some emi-
nence, the treatment he recommended ultimately dross •
me raving mad : and for six weeks my beloved rela-
tives were plunged into the greatest distress on my ace
count, their affection for me not allowing them to send
me from home. In the course of two or three
months I was allowed to resume my usual avocations,
and to revisit my friends, but before a year expired
my dear parents thought it requisite to apply once more
to a medical man. Having experienced so much in-
convenience from my former excitement, they
were advised to send me to St. Luke's Hos-
pital, bat, uatil the admission ticket could be obtained.
I was taken to a private asylum, where I received treat.
tnent the most barbarous, and was compelled to witness
scenes truely heat trending and appalling, which left an
indelible impression upon my mind. Between the ages
of eighteen and twenty-five I was twice confined in a
private lunatic asylum, and three:times in St. Luke's
Hospital ; the:lllst time, between four and five months ;
the second time about five months ; and the
last time, the whole year, and then sent out,
pronounced to be " an uncured lunatic." I can
prove that I was taken in with my reason and moral
feelings perfectly sound, and after being subjected
to strait waistcoats, chains, leg-locks, &c., was
discharged as ucfit to associate with rational
persons. . At the latter end of 1818, whilst
an inmate in a private asylum for the insane, I
formed the plan of keeping a copy of every letter I
wrote, feeling confident that they would, at some future
time, prove interesting documents ; and until within the
last few months this practice has been continued by me,
as well as keeping a daily journal ; the latter has been
the means of enabling me to correct those errors of
judgment into which all persons arc liable to fall. S;neO
the commencement of 1819, 1 have not been confined in
a lunatic establishment, but retaining an acute sense of
what I have endured, and a perfect recollection of the
scenes i. have witnessed in such places, my mental suf.
lerings, arising from a knowledge that others were suf.
fering from the same course of treatment hem at times,
been intense ; God a:one can tell what my mind endured
after the summer of 18-24 for more than two yearns'
owing to that sympathy which I needed, being, through.
prejudice and ignorance, withheld from me ; I thou, as

ni 'former oecaaions, fella victim to those sensitive and

benevolent feelings which I am eonsciouL I possessed.,
and which, I am happy to say, i L-fluence my presuat
conduct.

Straitened circumstances, which I have been - corn
pelted to submit to, have, no doubt, been advantageous
to my welfare, inasmuch as they have induced me to'
exercise those talents which the Ahnighty endoWed mo
with ; comparative poverty has also shitilded me from
the influence of those who otherwise might have placed
me under the guardianship of the Lord Chancellor, and
n
thus have deprived me of the liberty 1 am now enjoy.
ing, and am most anxious that others who are oppreos-Li .
le presume,xerei
sjn g t
ii
is e
ii
rn possessionreason
and.. oa
srnpdlei
ebteeilitie! liberty,
i kith
should,
o f
as I have been should also enjay,
power of
omit no opportunity of bringing to light, through those
theWpoh
faculties, and by the use of their
this day, up-
the press, these disgraceful proceedings,
mitted under the sanction of thosein
hold the cruel system pursued St. Luke's Hospital.
However modified the treatment towards the patients in that institution may be since 1 was an inmate under •
its roof, there cannot be that
to 17,
alw(111 i lst
the improvement there ought
I ,r to the one who wa
the same hind physician
di csh his are
situa-
tionc
Id( o
authorised
ignorant
tn eaxtetretndhaenrttsy,rasinnniyi-
who could neither readt
over me, are selected asi
ment of twenty nor retained—an
write,
had t ignorant
sole
manageso ma
or thirty of the patients, many of them
possessing cultivated minds that only required direction.
Such a fact need only to be known to meet with the re-
probation it deserves.
The genial character of Christianity which this.
country professes to maintain is liberty, but how many
thousands are writhing under more than Egyptian bond-
age, owing to the trammels with which the mind is
shackled. If one of that sex, whose true nature is to
look to man for protcctioa, has felt as she has, the hu.
miliating effects of oppression, what must man himself
feel, under the same kind of despotism ?
privileges, ay
1 rcspectfully solicit in behalf of those who have
been and are compelled to submit to degradation nod
insults, without any apparent hope of redress, that con.
they are entitled to,, that means Istoionnoffsei:vo
is my earnest desire.
havest, idearlaot ip°:::;ill‘t,tl oi
as
sir' e
members
nsta to them .
o ftshAienlittiullmosuaen
NEWELL.
theyi‘ivy,EtLoLe.i.
• .t • that a system so unjust to man
pit. • .
to God, may be for ever eradicated,
1, Upper Grafton-street, Fitzroy-square,
Nov. 4, 1840,

The first divisicn of the 42d Highlanders etn-
ba+ked on Friday a: C,:ve, fur servica in the 'Mediterra-
nean.