The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-10 00:00:00

PRIVATE LUNATIC ASYLUMS.

A gentleman who was for six weeks an inmate of a
madhouse, writes an account of his treatment therein to
the Pall Mall Gazette. He says, in the spring of 186— I had
an attack of paralysis (brought on by overwork in my pro-
fession), which for a time deprived me of the use of the
right side of my body. There was from the first, which
I believe is commonly the case, what the faculty
call " great cerebral disturbance," but there was not
in the earlier stages of the disease any mental delusion,
evinced. There was merely, to use a friend's expression,
an exaggeration of myself. This excitement of brain
ended in a few months in positive delusions, and it was
considered by my friends necessary (whether rightly or
wrongly is a mere matter of opinion) that I should be

,
placed. -in confinement and subjected to special
treatment. I was consequently sent to —, a
house opening into the grounds of a private
asylum in the neighbourhood of London. The
first attendant assigned to me was a man by the name
of " Leathers "—not a very powerful man, certainly less
powerful than myself. Under the talkative system of
Leathers " I rapidly, as might be expected, became
worse. One night, about a week after I entered this
establishment, I was very noisy, and I have no doubt the
slumbers of " Leathers " were considerably disturbed, and
he threatened if I did not " hold my noise " to tie my
,
hands. He had partly brought the noise "on himself,
for he had told me that " my wife was downstairs, and
after talking to the lady superintendent was coming up to
see me if I was quiet." He told me this, I presume, under
the impression that it would soothe me, and so it did for a
short time ; but as she not come (it is, perhaps, needless
to say she was not in the house) I shouted louder than
before, and began kicking with my left heel against
the wall, thinking that if she heard the noise she
would suppose I was in trouble and would come
the sooner. This was too much for "Leathers," and he
very shorty after tied my wrists with some list bands,
which he took from a drawer in the room. He tied my
wrists together so tightly that my hands were almost
black. As was, perhaps, natural to a man whose brain
was in a state of morbid excitement, I immediately fancied
myself " Prometheus Vinctus," and indulged my keeper
with recitations from the Greek poets at the top of my
voice. Whether " Leathers " was irritated by
the novel sound of Greek, or thought that I was
calling him names, I know not ; but he almost
immediately crept round to the head of my bed and pro-
ceeded to kneel upon me, one knee being on the left side
of my chest and the other on the left side of my
neck ; and whenever I attempted to move, or made a
noise, he gave a jolt with his whole weight, the effect
of which was to knock the greater part of the wind
out of me. I cannat find words to describe my
feelings on that miserable night. Luckily it was the
height of summer, and was therefore light in a few hours.
I knew I was ill ; I knew I was in a madhouse ; I knew
that the man kneeling upon me was my keeper, and the
horrid thought crossed me that he was doing what he did
to make me mad. Shortly after dawn, seeing the dark
colour of my hands, " Leathers " yielded to
my repeated entreaties to loosen the list bandages
which were round my wrists, but he would not entirely

free me, nor could I free myself, owing to the paralysis in
my right arm. In this state I remained, as far as 1 could
judge, till between five and six o'clock in the morning.
He then consented to call a young medical student to me
provided I would lay quite quiet, let him untie my hands
and fasten my left wrist to the head of the bed,
Immediately the medical student saw me he ordered
" Leathers "to untie my arm. lie found my pulse in a
very excited state, •as was to be supposed ; in fact, I
could myself detect the blood, as it were, being pumped
up tlie back of my neck into my brain. He applied ice to
the back of my meek, ordered " Leathers "out of the room,
and himself sat with me till I fell asleep. At my request my
friend the medical student (for I felt him indeed to be a
friend), provided me with another attendant the reverse
of " Leathers" in every respect. My new attendant was
as strong as Hercules, and as gentle and kind as strong.
From the time of my having him about me my health
began steadily to improve and my excitement
to subside. During the greater part of the
time I was an inmate of this asylum, the proprietor, a
medical man, was absent in the North of England, taking
his annual holidays, his patients, about eighty in number,
being left to the care of a house surgeon and a medical
student," The writer concludes by enumerating the most
objectionable practices on the part of the officials in the
asylum with respect to the patients. He says the not un-
common habit of trotting out the delusions of patients forthe
amusement of visitors cannot be too strongly reprehended.
" For the proprietor of a lunatic asylum to call up a
patient and put him through his facings," if I may use
the expression, may be amusing to some people whose
brains are not in a state of irritation, but to a patient
sitting by, recently recovered from acute mania
and sensible of his position, this sort of thing is
more painful than I can describe; one patient saying
_ "Doctor, you did not keep your promise last night; you.
know the state of my stomach, and that I cannot digest
my food till my head is off. In the name of mercy, cut
keepown l
her.
down Give in
it off to-night !" another saying, " For God's sake, doctor,
keep
powderee p he
:r daon7t
in keepto her down
r'—this po
or
fellow's s e d loiot zr,
fellow's delusion being that he had swallowed hiswife.
The practice of lying, which is indulged
in freely by at-
tendants, is another evil. An
attendant will say any-
thing which he thinks will quiet a patieut at the moment.
This only leads to greater Irritation, for a man soon find
n n
out that he has been deceived, and becomes mores furious
than ever."

INDIA-RUBBER DEADENING SOUND.—Ave once
visited a factory where some forty or fifty coppersmiths
were at work in a shop above our heads ; but what was
remarkable scarcely a sound of their noisy hammering
could be heard. On going upstairs we saw the explana-
tion. Each leg of every bench rested on a cushion made
of indiarubber cuttings. This completely deadened the
sound.— Chambers's Journal.