Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-03-06
TREATMENT OF TIE INSANE.

In the last number of the International
RevieW DIR. Hammond has an article on
the treatment of the insane, in which he
asserts that we are behind all other civilized
countries in this matter. He states that the
use of restrictive agencies, which has long
been completely abandoned in the asylums
of England and the Continent generally, is
still retained in most, if not all, the asy-
lums of the United States His most
curious assertion, however, is that Ameri-
can Superintendent of Insane Asylums
hold a theory that though non-restraint
may do very well in Europe, it is impossi-
BILE here, because OF climatic and physical
differences. "Thus," he says, cat
meeting of the Association of Superin-
"tendents, DR.. Wilkins, the President,
"gravely told his fellow-members that he
supposed if anything had been settled to
{" the satisfaction of members OF this As
ISOLATION, it is that in this country our
"patients, by original temperament, or by
"some inherent quality of the universal
Yankee, will not submit to the control
"of any person they consider their equal
.or inferior so readily as to that of me-
"chanical appliances. DR.. Bucknill was
very much surprised at this kind OF argu-
ment, the more so as he remembered that
it had been used in England and France
and Germany before To the observer of
American progress, or indeed of any pro.
gress, it will, however, not seem astonish
ing. FORTS it not the familiar argument with
which politicians and amateur economists
have sought to rally patriotic imbecility to
the standards of fossilism and fallacy, 10
these many years? When Mr.. Pig-iron
Kelly tells us that though Free Trade has
made England great, yet it would not do
for America because there are special diff
ferences in the situation of the countries;
when Mr.. De La Matyr tells us that though
irredeemable paper has proved a disastrous
fallacy everywhere else, yet it is the very
best kind of money for the United States !;
when the Chicago Tribune declares that
though the law of Gresham has always op-
Grated everywhere else, yet in this country |
there is no ground for apprehending that !
an inferior currency would drive out su.
perior one; when the "Stalwarts tell |
us that though Civil Service Reform an
swers admirably in England, it is not CAL
culated for these ATTITUDES; when any
auack or demagogue comes forward to ad- |
vocate some nostrum whose worthlessness |
has been exposed over and over again, in |
short, he is sure to employ the formula |
which the Associated Superintendent ap- |
pear to have adopted so naturally and inno-
Gently. In effect the argument is the last |
refuge of beaten toryism. When every |
reason fails, and the badness of an old |
method and the goodness of a new
one stand demonstrated, it is the almost |
inevitable subterfuge of the advocates of |
fossilism. Of course it has no more founda-
ton in fact in the case of the insane than it |
has in any other regard. American luna
tics are as other lunatics, neither more nor
less violent They are in every respect as
capable of restraint without violence or
mechanical appliances as are the people of
any other country, and it may safely be
concluded that the real motive of those
who contend for the fossil view is to
save trouble in increased attendance.
We are, however, specially interested in
this matter, because We wish to know how
our own Superintendents, Drs. Shurtleff
and Wilkins, stand on the general PROPOSE
ton. We have had reason to believe that
in the treatment of the insane California
was fully abreast of the age. DR.. Ham