Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British Isles Part 31

[252] "Tenth Report of the District, Criminal, and Private Lunatic Asylums in Ireland."

[253] Page 34.

[254] See Report of Select Committee, etc., 1817.

[255] "Description," etc., 1813.

[256] "The acc.u.mulation of the number of incurable cases which necessarily must have occurred from time to time in these asylums, had also been overlooked, and has consequently led to the embarra.s.sment which is felt at present with respect to the best mode of providing for them."--Report of the Inspectors, 1843.

[257] "Report from the Select Committee on the Lunatic Poor in Ireland, with Minutes of Evidence taken before the Committee, 1817."

[258] "An Act to provide for the Establishment of Asylums for the Lunatic Poor in Ireland, 1817." Introduced by Mr. V. Fitzgerald, but prepared By Mr. Thos. Spring Rice, M.P. for Limerick.

[259] Repealing 57 Geo. III., c. 106, and 1 Geo. IV., c. 98.

[260] See Twenty-seventh Report of Inspectors of Asylums, May 1, 1878.

[261] Parliamentary Return, ordered to be printed, April 19, 1826.

[262] Parliamentary Papers, Correspondence, etc., between the Home Office and the Irish Government during 1827 on Public Lunatic Asylums.

[263] First Annual Report of the City of Cork Asylum, dated March 1, 1827.

[264] For particulars in regard to the condition of the insane in Ireland in this year, see "Report of the Select Committee appointed to take into consideration the state of the poorer cla.s.ses in Ireland in relation to Lunatic Asylums, 1830."

[265] "The Report of the Lords' Committee appointed to consider the state of the lunatic poor in Ireland, and to report to the House."

[266] Report of the Lords' Committee.

[267] Orders in Council were in consequence issued for the erection of the new district asylums, under the statutes 1 and 2 Geo. IV. and 7 Geo.

IV., c. 14, which will be found on another page.

[268] This Act was preceded by the Select Committee of Lunatic Asylums (Ireland), moved by Colonel Dunne. Dr. Nugent, the Inspector of Asylums, gave in his evidence a minute description of the system under which asylums have been erected in Ireland, and stated that the expenditure on the seven asylums built since 1847 amounted 313,973. In the same year a Commission was appointed to inquire into the erection of district lunatic asylums, which reported in 1856.

[269] The Prisons Act.

[270] See p. 191. Irish lunacy is only incidentally noticed in this evidence, which had primary reference to England.

[271] The medical superintendent of the Belfast Asylum, one of the best-managed inst.i.tutions of Ireland.

[272] _Journal of Mental Science_, April, 1875.

[273] Dr. Robertson to the Inspector of Lunacy, Report, p. lx.x.xvii.

[274] From editorial article in _Journal of Mental Science_, July, 1879.

[275] 8 and 9 Vict., c. 107, s. 15.

[276] Page lxii.

[277] Patients being sent to asylums on the pretext of their being "dangerous lunatics" when not so. See p. 435.

[278] Page lxviii.

[279] The Dundrum Central Criminal Asylum, recommended by the Committee of the House of Lords in 1843, and established by the 8 and 9 Vict., c.

107, was built at a cost of 19,547, and was opened in 1850 on the south side of the city of Dublin, capable then of holding only 120 inmates.

When the writer visited it in 1875, he was very favourably impressed with its condition. Dr. McCabe was at that time superintendent, and has been succeeded by Dr. Ashe.

[280] "Parliamentary Debates," 3rd series, vol. ccxlviii., August, 1879, p. 1822.

[281] Ibid., vol. ccliv., July, 1880, p. 892.

[282] Ibid., vol. cclv., August, 1880.

[283] _Op. cit._, p. 894.

[284] "Parliamentary Debates," 3rd series, vol. cclx. p. 802.

[285] _Op. cit._, vol. cclx. p. 810.

[286] It was withdrawn July 8, 1881.

[287] See "The Richmond Asylum Schools," by Dr. D. Hack Tuke, _Journal of Mental Science_, October, 1875. Also an article in the _Journal_, April, 1882, by Mr. Fox, the master of the school.

[288] Only those supported by Government. The total number was 112.

[289] In 1873 the number was greater, viz. 664.

[290] The inspectors make a total of 13,051.

[291] _Journal of Mental Science_, January, 1882.

CHAPTER XI.

PROGRESS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE DURING THE LAST FORTY YEARS: 1841-1881.[292]

If, gentlemen, History be correctly defined as Philosophy teaching by examples, I do not know that I could take any subject for my Address more profitable or fitting than the Progress of Psychological Medicine during the forty years which, expiring to-day, mark the life of the a.s.sociation over which, thanks to your suffrages, I have the honour to preside this year--an honour greatly enhanced by the special circ.u.mstances under which we a.s.semble, arising out of the meeting in this metropolis of the International Medical Congress. To it I would accord a hearty welcome, speaking on behalf of this a.s.sociation, which numbers amongst its honorary members so many distinguished alienists, American and European. Bounded by the limits of our four seas, we are in danger of overlooking the merits of those who live and work beyond them.

I recall the observation of Arnold of Rugby, that if we were not a very active people, our disunion from the Continent would make us nearly as bad as the Chinese. "Foreigners say," he goes on to remark, "that our insular situation cramps and narrows our minds. And this is not mere nonsense either. What is wanted is a deep knowledge of, and sympathy with, the European character and inst.i.tutions, and then there would be a hope that we might each impart to the other that in which we are superior."

Do we not owe to France the cla.s.sic works of Pinel and of Esquirol--justly styled the Hippocrates of Psychological Medicine--works whose value time can never destroy; and have not these masters in Medical Psychology been followed by an array of brilliant names familiar to us as household words, Georget, Bayle, Ferrus, Foville, Leuret, Falret, Voisin, Trelat, Parchappe, Morel, Marce, who have pa.s.sed away,[293] and by those now living who, either inheriting their name or worthy of their fame, will be inscribed on the long roll of celebrated psychologists of which that country can boast.

If Haslam may seem to have stumbled upon General Paralysis, we may well accord to French alienists the merit of having really discovered the disorder which, in our department, is the most fascinating, as it has formed the most prominent object of research, during the last forty years.

To mention Austria and Germany, is to recall Langermann, Feuchtersleben, Reil, Friedreich, Jacobi, Zeller, Griesinger, Roller, and Flemming, who, full of years and honours, has now pa.s.sed away.