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    928 THE LEADEB, [No. 340, Satuhdat,

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    '3f v *fiVt*r* i ft+t»iv JLir*ruIIirF< , . 0

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    Critics are not the legislators, but the...

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    The French haTe at all times been master...

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    Aristotle, it has been remarked, came af...

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    OUR INSA.NE FOREFATHERS. The Treatment o...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    928 The Leadeb, [No. 340, Satuhdat,

    928 THE LEADEB , [ No . 340 , Satuhdat ,

    '3f V *Fivt*R* I Ft+T»Iv Jlir*Ruiiirf≪ , . 0

    iCtterotart

    Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...

    Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make lawa—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Meviexc .

    The French Hate At All Times Been Master...

    The French haTe at all times been masters of literary allusion ; and in the present state of affairs , when a despotism , unparalleled in French history , gags the mouths of all who will not proclaim the opinions of the Government , allusion takes its small vengeance in feuilleton articles , and in notices of the Opera . Many an innocent sentence carries terrible reproaches in it , simply because the readers are alert , and detect an allusion -where none was intended . It is difficult to believe that none was intended in Saint-Marc Gikabdin ' s article on Rousseau , in the last Revue des j ^ eux Monies , and yet it will "be difficult even for Louis INapoi , eon , little as lie is accustomed to stop at enormities , to take public notice of the article . The bullet flies direct at his head , but he must not pretend that it can touch him . Saint-Makc

    Gibabdin refers to his articles on the Conkat Social published during 1848 . He declares his object to have been to attack the theory of absolute power centred in the state , which forms the principle of Rousseau ' s political scheme . This principle , which accommodates itself to every form of tyranny , whether that of a church , a palace , a forum , or a club , which is no less unsocial and immoral when the " sovereignty of the people" replaces , or is replaced , by the sovereignty of an autocrat . M . Saint-Marc combated it en jpleine r ^ publiqtie ^ as he now combats it en plein despot isme . " No ! " he exclaims , " I have no fears of a republic , nor of any other form of government : that which I dread is the idea that here on earth an absolute power can exist against which the individual has no rights , no protection ? In plainer

    language he dreads the theory / which allows the Emperor to commit crimes without allowing the victim or the friends of the ¦ victim to make them public—which allows him to send his political enemies to Cayenne , suddenly , without trial , and will not allow the fact to he published in the papers—wall not allow the friends to remonstrate openly against tyranny so iniquitous . ' It matters but little what is the form of government , " says M . Saint-Marc , " but it matters much that in the presence of that government the individual has no rights which he can legitimately claim and enforce . It is then all over with liberty , not only political , but civil and religious liberty . " The article 5 s worth reading foi other things than its political allusions ;

    " The Revolution of 1789 , " M . Saint-Marc well says , " only abolished the barriers which separated one province from another , and the privileges which separated one class from another , to raise above all particular ideas of place , time , and race , the abstract idea of the State . Equality and centralization , in short , —equality , that sentiment peculiarly French , which compensates the vanity of each by the envy of all—and centralization , that other idea entirely French , which mistakes uniformity for order , —these two ideas have prevailed in virtue of the idea of the State , since in a well regulated State it is natural that all the citizens should be equal , and ttat all affairs should be conducted according to one rule . '

    Another article in the same Itevue , by M . Chabies de Rkmusat , on Unitarianism in England , is also worth reading . It is an historical sketch of the rise and progress of the Unitarians in England , temperately written , without any polemics , and with evident sympathy for entire freedom of discussion . CnAnnE and Hoo » are criticized in another article . Indeed there is now rarely a number of the Review in which some article on English literature does not appear ; and these articles are , for the most part , written by men who , in . spite of their being Frenchmen , do actually know what they are writing of !

    Aristotle, It Has Been Remarked, Came Af...

    Aristotle , it has been remarked , came after Homer ; criticism follows creation ; theories succeed experience . For many years the restaurants in Paris have had the reputation of supplying the unsuspecting customer with horse-beef ; and now M . Isidore St . Hilaire publishes a grave book , full of facts and physiology , to show that horseflesh is as good as most oxflesh ; « nd he demands that a market of horseflesh be regularly established for the public to eat with secure consciences this excellent beef so long disdained by prejudice . Seriously the book is vciy interesting , and its conclusions Tei-y important . It is entitled , Lettres sur les Sitbsta 7 ices Alimentaircs ct partimUfrement stir la Viande de Cheval . To read it is to be convinced .

    Our Insa.Ne Forefathers. The Treatment O...

    OUR INSA . NE FOREFATHERS . The Treatment of the Insane without Mechanical Restraints . By John Conolly , M . D . ' ' Smitli , Elder , and Co . It is very useful from , time to time to revive the drooping spirits of those ¦ whos e faith in progress has received discouragement by meditation on the ma ^ y obalaclea accumulated on its path ; and there is no more effectual method , of reviving such faith than the actual comparison of our present condition m , any one cardinal and capital point with that of our forefathers . v . / J ? l ueil ? o " powerless , and argument of small weight , a plain statement of facts wUl carry conviction . ; fl ? i f Laton ? ent we read in the work before us . Dr . Conolly » s purpose lS rwu tlie necwBity of treating insane people upon the prin--t Pi , P ^ acfcl 8 ? d f * Hawaii , and most other asylums of tn o present day , and rioffSJjff " !? ' Kr ™ f under any f ° # « io old eysteui . To make

    were its effects . In doing this he has not onl y done good service to the insane , lie has also furnished a most striking testimony to social progress : . Up to the middle of the last century , and in many countries much later , harmless maniacs , or those supposed to be so , " were allowed to-wander over the country , heggars and vagabonds , affording sport and mockery . If they became troublesome , they ¦ were imprisoned in dungeons ; whipped , as the phrase was , out of their madness at all events subdued ; and thea secluded in darkness , in the heat of summer , and in the cold and dampness of winter , and forgotten ; always half famished , often starved to death . There was not a town or a village in all the fairest countries of Europe nor in all this Christian land , in which such enormities were wholly unknown . At length the condition of the mad obtained some attention ; aud then , massive and gloomy mansions were prepared for them ^ These were but prisons of the worst description . Small openings in the walls , unglazed , or whether glazed or not , guarded with strong iron bars ; narrow corridors , dark cells , desolate courts , where no tree , nor shrub , nor flower , nor blade of grass grew ; solitariness , or companionship so indiscriminate as to be -worse than solitude ; terrible attendants , armed with whips , sometimes ( in France ) accompanied by savage dogs , and free to impose manacles , and chains , and stripes , at their own brutal will ; uncleanliness , semi-starvation , the garotte , and unpunished murders : these were the characteristics of such buildings throughout Europe . There were , I need scarcely add , no gardens for exercise and recreation , and health such as surround all pur new asylums : no amusements , no cheerful occupations , no books to read , no , newspapers or pictures , no evening eutertainments , no excursions , no animating change or variety of any kind , no scientific medical treatment , no religious consolation . No chapel bell assembled the patients for prayer , " or suspended the fierce and dreadful thoughts and curses of the dungeon ; ho friendly face did ' good like a medicine . ' People looked with awe on the outside of such buildings , and , after sunset walked far round , to avoid hearing the cries and yells wMch made night hideous . . It would have been kinder and more consistent to have shot madmen as we shoot mad dogs . To have said , boldly , " These are dangerous creatures , and must be putOut of the way" would , however , have shocked the moral sense ; . accordingl y it was said , " These are dangerous creatures ; they must be confined ; and if they are not quiet in confinement they must be flogged and frightened into it . " Flogging , frightening , seclusion , bad food , worse clothing , chains and manacles , were cures for insanity ! Esquirol ' s publication of what he had seen produced a profound impression : — Writing in 1818 , he says , he found the insane naked , or covered with rags , and only protected by straw from the cold damp pavement on which they were lying . They were coarsely fed , without fresh air , without light , without water to allay their thirst , under the dominion of gaolers , and chained in caves to which , wild beasts would not have been consigned . The general employment of chains was revolting ; the patients had collars and belts of iron , and fetteTs on their hands and feet . Some were fastened to the wall by a chain a foot and a half long , and this method was extolled as being peculiarly calming . Chains were universally preferred to straitwaistcoats , because they were less expensive . There was no medical treatment directed to the cure of the mental malady ; and the rude attendants employed seclusion and baths of surprise , and occasional floggings at will .

    The insane were not much , better treated in England . Even so late as in the year 1815 , such abuses were general . There is clear proof of their continued existeuce in 1827 ; arid it cannot be denied that not a few of them survived , in some public and private asylums , in 1850 . The successive reports of the Commissioners in Lunacy abound in incontestable and curious evidence of this . In some provincial licensed houses the male and female patients were left at night in miserable outhouses , without attendants , and without available aid of any kind ; without fire or any means of warmtl , and without protection . There were no baths ; and no medical treatment was resorted to . In some of the largest private asylums near London , the rooms are described as having been " crowded , wet , filthy , uuventilated , and very offensive , " and the dormitories were lighted and aived by apertures without glass . Feeble patients were left without drink , or any decent attendance ; a few potatoes being given to them now and then , in a wooden bowl . In a house at Fonthill , in " Wiltshire , out of fourteen male patients , only one was without fetters or handcufis , aud only three were out of their sleeping rooms .

    The bad feeding , the dirt , and want of clothing were not necessary parts of the system , hut they -were offshoots from that primary principle of considering madness not as a disease which might be cured , and ought to be ameliorated , but as something which removed the patient from the pale of humanity , and which required to be treated with watchful rigor . A madman was dangerous , and facile logic leaped to the conclusion that he must be restrained by violence , because any other sort of restraint was chimerical . In schools and nurseries tins principle of physical restraint still lingers . It is the weapon of impatient ignorance . To cane a naughty boy , or shut him in a dark room , requires neither intelligence nor patience . If that does not make him good , something severer must be tried . If alt severity fails , the boy is declared incorrigible ! While such "ideas rule in . nurseries and school . , while such a system is thought desirable for our sons , what chance is there of madmen thrown among strangers , consigned to brutal keepers , being treated with consideration ? Kow glance for a moment at the new method . See how the entire absence of violence and physical restraint effects the desired purpose : —

    But I must be permitted to suppose a caso admitted at llanwell , a , place which know tho best , and can speak of the most positively . The caso may bo that of a man who for a week or two has been violently maniacal ; who , becoming first , perhaps , idle and intemperate , haa terrified his family , broken tho furnituro of his house , or attacked his neighbours ; or harangued the public and disturbed the streets , ami resisted all control until overcome by the police . He comes to the asylum bound very tightly , sometimes hand and foot , or fastened in a strait-waistcoat . He is still violont , but exhausted : he is flushed , feverish , thirsty ; in appearance haggard , and in manner fierce , or sullen . His voice ia hoarse with shouting . Ho is unwashed , unshaved , and half starved , Hia clotlies arc torn and dirty . Ho lias ofton many bruises or injuries , which ho has incurred in his furious condition . His violenco is still dreaded , and he exhibits capricious proofs of remaining strength ; so that those who have brought him to the asylum are afraid to stay , and unfelgnedly rojoicc to got rid of him j -wondering that any people should bo found to take chargo of him , ami earnestly warning them to take caro of thomselvea .

    Or tho caso may ho that of a femulo patient , equally violent , but whose frnntic exertions proceeds from a dread ehb entertains that somo fearful punishment is impending over lier ; that sho is to be cut to pieces , or to bo Inirned nlivo ; and thia for crimes of which sho boMovca herself to bo accused . " With these impressions , thoughts arc probably bont on suicido , as an expiation , or as a moans of escape from suffering-Oases of infinite variety may bo imaginod ; in nil of which confusion , and bewilderment ) and terror under all surrounding circumstances , for a time disturb tho mind-In all thoao cubcs , tho first difficultiua appear bo great , anil tho dangers go Messing

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 27, 1856, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27091856/page/16/