The Sun.
London, England, 1845-07-11 00:00:00

it can be made out or not the ultimate fact is enough for us,
enough for. all practical purposes, the melancholy fact taught
us by large and painful experience, that if the first indications
of insanity are neglected, they are extremely apt to increase,
to pass beyond control, and to lapse into confirmed mania, or
incurable imbecility. But why is this fatal delay in the
treatment of these distressing cases so common ? Because
for large classes of the community there is no fitting
asylum to which the patient can go, and in which the treat-
ment appropriate to his peculiar affection can be adopted.
For the pauper proper asylums are in some instances pro-
vided ; and there is ground for hope, mainly through the in-
defatigable exertions of your Noble Chairman, whose life is
a strenuous, and we 'may now begin to say, a successful
struggle, to bring help to those who cannot help themselves
(Cheers)—for pauper maniacs, until lately a neglected and
meet wretched class, provision seems about to be made in some
degree adequate to the occasion. But for those who are
above destitution, but without wealth—who are able when
in health to earn a comfortable and independent subsistence,
but whose power of self-support is necessarily lost with the
loss of health—for such sufferers there is no provision ; yet
ordinary sickness, lasting only a few months, nay, only a few
weeks. throws persons of this class into a state of embarrass-
ment from which they do not recover for several years—they
cannot pass through an attack of common fever, for example,
without being thrown by the expense of it from a state
of comparative ease to that of distressing poverty, per-
haps for two or three years. What then must be their
condition when attacked by such a' disease as insanity?
It is most truly stated in the prospectus in your hands,
that the effect often is completely to pauperise not only
the individual sufferer himself but the whole of his family.
Against this calamity it appears to me that the application
•f the principle of combination is one of the appropriate re-
medies. Large numbers brought together in the same es-
tablishment, conducted on a well-devised plan, in which a
due regard is paid to economy, can be supported at a cheaper
rate than is practicable in a small' establishment—l trust at
so cheap a rate as to bring it within the reach of the clerk,
the teacher, and the humbler members of the learned pro-
fessions. In the prospectus it is estimated that the cost will
be for each. individual from 255. to 30s. per week. I hope
experience will show that it will be practicable to bring the
cost within 20s per week. Let it be borne in mind that 20s.
per week is 50/. a year. It is easy to see how greatly the
long continued payment even of such a sum must impoverish
the classes in question. To many of them the annual pay-
ment of such a sum for any length of time must be wholly
impracticable, and therefore it is that I regard with
entire satisfaction the Charitable Fund, which it is a part of
the proposed plan to found, for the assistance of those who
are too poor to continue the payment they had commenced,
and who, if unassisted, must submit to the removal of their
relative or friend from the asylum. If there ever was a case
in which assistance is needed, and would be useful, it is this.
I will add one word relative to the improved treatment
likely to result from the establishment now proposed. It
is notorious, that since the establishment of county asylums,
with the inspection and publicity attached to them, a re-
markable improvement has taken place in the treatment of
the insane. A week or two ago I spent upwards of four
hours in the wards of the asylum at Hanwell. In this esta-
blishment it has been found practicable to abolish every
kind and degree of personal restraint. There was no instance
of it in any patient that I sea-. The impression left upon
my mind by my visit was the apparent absence of suffering,
and the comparative cheerfulness of the place. Absence of
suffering ! Cheerfulness! What words to be associated with
such a place ! For such an impression to be possible, what
a contrast must there now be to the horrors which a short
time ago were characteristic of these places. I envy
the satisfied consciousness of the man who, enlightened
by science, has taken a true view of the infirmities
of our nature in their most deplorable shape, and who, sus-
tained in his belief by the benevolence of his own nature and
by a Howard-like devotion, has been able to work this great
change.—(Cheers.) I cannot say that I think even at Han-
well the perfection of treatment has been attained. In such an
institution there are difficulties in carrying out the higher and
more refined parts of the system attempted there—parts
which may be found in practice to be the most efficient of all,
that will not attach to the institution now contemplated. I
believe, therefore, that by the establishment of the proposed
institution, you will not only at once relieve a mass of dread-
ful suffering, but that you will show the means of lessening
that suffering more and more effectually, in all other places,
and to, perhaps, distant ages.—(Cheers.) The resolution is
as follows :

" That patients in every stage, form, and complication of
the disorder should be admissible to such an asylum, when
recommended 1)7 a Governor, subject to the decision of the
Committee of Management."
Mr. GRANGER seconded the resolution. He thought the
opinion too prevalent that insanity was not a disease of
the body. Therefore, when insanity attacked an in-
dividual, he was considered as removed beyond the
ordinary means of art. This opinion ought to be alto-
gether eradicated, for the report of the Parliamentary Commis-
sion had shown that where the cases were taken in time, a com-
plete cure was in most instances effected. It was for this reason
t hat he hailed with pleasure the formation of a Society like this.
He hoped the means to be adopted by the Institution would
not only ensure relief to a vast amount of suffering, but effect
a general improvement in the treatment of cerebral disease ;
and with these strong hopes and confident conviction of the
results of the Institution, he felt great pleasure in seconding
the resolution —(Hear, hear.)
The resolution was then put from the chair, and carried
unanimously.
Lord EBRLNGTON, in proposing the third resolution, ob-
served that when he entered that room it was for the pur-
pose of obtaining rather than imparting information, being
himself wholly unacquainted with the peculiar features of
the subjects under consideration. He had, however con-
sented formally to move a resolution, because such a task
required nothing more than a bare knowledge of the parties
introduced into it. A short time since, having had occasion
to visit the Devon County Asylum, he was struck with the
comfort and humanity evinced in its various appliances ; and
he could not help comparing its appearance with that so gra-
phically, so thrillingly presented in the prints of Hogarth.
liow dreadful, how heartrending were the miseries depicted
there ; what a contrast with the system adopted at
Geneva, and that now pursued at the institutions
lately formed for the relief of pauper lunatics. Though
lie admitted that much remained to be effected for
that inferior class, yet the object now in view was to apply a
remedy to even a greater amount of misery : it was for those
not needing charity, but such assistance as they could re-
ceive consistently with that independence so peculiarly the
characteristic of the middling-class. He would not trespass
any longer on the time of the meeting, but forthwith move
the following resolution :
" That a Provisional Committee, consisting of the follow-
ing persons, with power to add to their number, be ap-
pointei to carry this object into effect, and that an appeal
be made to the nobility, clergy, and public in general, for
donations and subscriptions :—Lord Ashley, M.P. ; Dr.
Bevan; Benjamin Bond Cabbell, Esq. ; Dr. Cobb; Dr.
Connolly • William Dimes, Esq._ ; Henry Duesbury, Esq.;
Dr. Hamilton Dr. Hitch ; Sir George Larpent, Bart. ; Dr.
Pritchard ; Dr. Scott ; Dr. Southwood Smith ; Samuel
Solly, Esq.; Arthur Stilwell, Esq.; William Thornborrow,
Esq. ; William Tite, Esq. ; Joseph Toynbee, Esq. ; Dr.
Robert Willis; Dr. Winslow.

Mr. J. H. HALL, Metropolitan Commissioner of Lunacy,
stated that in seconding the resolution just proposed, any
remarks which he might offer must be attributed solely to
his private feelings, and not to his public capacity. For
some years he had been in close connexion with the
insane, but he could never forget—no, nor scarcely express--
the feelings he first entertained on coming in contact
with those so lamentably afflicted. Familiarity, it was said,
blunted feelings, but he trusted his would never be seared by
even his frequent association with misery.—(Cheers.) Many
a time had he returned from scenes of anguish, worn
out and dispirited—for endeavours to mitigate the suffer-
ings of others left behind feelings of acute pain.
He had not been long connected with these institutions
when he statted publicly that their establishment would
effect a great amelioration in every class of the insane. The
intellect of man might be compared to the rain—now gently
descending on the earth, now swelling the stream, now the
rivulet, and now becoming stagnant, muddy, and foetid. So the
intellect, if imparted to a healthy body, and given to a robust
constitution,weuld be vigorous and strong ; but if to a weak
and sickly frame, it was usually found impaired. There-
fore it was that the health of the patient should
be sedulously observed in such institutions ; when
disease affected the body only, and not the mind, the man
might dispo.,:e of his person and his property. He concurred
in the opinion expressed by other speakers who had pre-
ceded him, that early admission ought to be a fundamental
principle of the establishment. He knew several instances
where, on his recommendation, servants had been
sent to an asylum at the first symptom of dementia,
and in six weeks had returned to their situations perfectly
recovered. The diseases were merely sympathetic, caused by
a temporary derangement of the functions of the stomach
or lungs, but, if neglected, they would have become per-
manent and chronic in the brain. He hoped, there-
fore, a portion of the Institution would be set apart
expressly to cure disease. (Hear, hear.) It was
impossible to cure diseases by masses. The greatest
care and vigilance was necessary even to insure the
prospect of success ; a minute examination into the state
of the afflicted would be required ; positive limits should
be fixed to the association, of the curable from the incurable,
and a complete separation effected.—(Hear.)

It is not air that from a thousand lungs wreaths back to thine.
Sated with exhalations rank and fell,
The stench of dunghills and the putrid thaw of nature.

It is not air I

—(Ch, era.) He should advise also greater liberty and
freedom to be allowed the patients than was or-
dinarily acceded in their association with friends or
relatives • and he urged this, because he felt that the per-
mission Of free intercourse with their fellow-creatures was
one of the most likely means of restoring sanity, and enabling
the afflicted to return to their friends. Economy, he was
glad to observe, had been regarded in the arrangements al-
ready proposed—an economy which would enable its founders
to relieve five instead of one. He knew of a county asylum
where 350 patients were relieved at a cost of 350,0001., while
the establishment now proposed would not require more
than 30,0001. Another county asylum provided for 235
lunatics, erected at a cost of 64,0001., and its entire expenses
were not less than 90,0001., or 4001. a head, a sum which
might give relief to five instead of one. But their institution,
acting on principles of economy as well as benevolence, would
afford those essentials to comfort, at present denied the suf-
ferer—would give them cheerful scenes instead of a lingering
and dreary life, and relieve the mind while it healed the
body. The Hon. Gentleman concluded by seconding the
resolution, which was put and carried unanimously.
Mr. JOHN WILKES, in proposing the fourth resolution, said
that as the last speaker had referred to his connexion with
the insane, he also, as visiting magistrate of Hanwell, could
testify to the noble exertions which in that institution had
been made to relieve pauper lunatics. But while he rejoiced
at these endeavours to ameliorate the condition of the
poor, he felt deeply the want of an establish-
ment .which would provide for the middling classes.
Often had his retirement been intruded on by widowed mo-
thers whose sons, the hope of their old age, intellectual,
promising, aspiring, had, by the very exercise of those
talents too assiduously, become lunatics, sweeping away the
hopes of the mother, and leaving her to despair. Many had
implored him to obtain admission for their afflicted relatives
into Hanwell and other pauper institutions, and many actu-
ally were received by application being made for them in the
capacity of paupers. But now, through Dr. Connolly's laud-
able endeavours, a prospect was held out of an opportunity
for relief being at length afforded the middling classes. A
curative course would, he trusted, be adopted in the conduct
of the asylum, and, if so, he considered its appliances would
be then complete. With these few observations he would
conclude, merely moving " That Lord Ashley, Benjamin
Boi:d Cabb2ll, Esq., and Samuel Gurney, Esq., be appointed
trustees of the asylum."
Dr. WINSLOW, in seconding the resolution, mentioned, as
a proof of the necessity of such an institution, that the widow
of a gentleman, once in affluent circumstances, but having
only 100/. a year to support herself and seven or eight chil-
dren, came to him for advice respecting a daughter who had
lately become insane Not being ab!e to put the sufferer
under proper treatment, a younger child was entrusted with
her charge; ana ste‘. from constant attendancseon her sister,
shortly hrter a lunatic. Insaol!v demanded the
vmpi!ipy ;,li.; it was _different from 0 Kerx.ittiter- disease ;
the ann(itieanie wreck, and who could say what was the
fever of the mind ? The consequences of there not being at
present any institution of the kind proposed were, that many