I hope the observations upon the many valuable The article in the Appendix, on the "Present Condition of Lunacy in England and Wales," is based upon the recent valuable reports of the Commissioners in Lunacy. The facts embodied in that paper are taken from the reports above The tabular statements are also copied from I have added to the volume a copious Index, which, I trust, will very much facilitate any special A HISTORY OF THE LEGISLATION ON THE SUBJECT OF LUNACY. Ir is not my purpose to consider at any length this subject. Were I disposed to do so, I should find but little difficulty in awakening the kindly sympathies of the humane, or in appalling the most callous hearts, by entering into a detail of the barbarous treatment to which all those unhappily afflicted with a loss of reason were in former times subjected. The public mind has been made sufficiently conversant with facts like these. The insane are no longer treated like wild beasts; the lunatic asylum no longer resembles the Spanish Inquisition, or the hold of a slave-ship; the poor, wretched inmates of these establishments are not now exposed to the painful infliction of the whip, nor are they chained like felons to the floor of some dreary, pestilential dungeon, and exhibited to the gaze of those anxious to gratify a morbid curiosity. Thanks and immortal honour be to those who laid bare these great enormities! The condition of these unhappy sufferers had, for some period antecedent to the introduction of B any legislative measure, attracted the attention of parliament, and had given rise to some discussion in the House of Commons. The subject was specifically brought under the notice of parliament in the year 1763; but ten years were allowed to elapse before any measure was proposed for the regulation of establishments in which the insane were confined. Prior to this period, a committee was appointed to examine into the condition of the lunatic asylums, and the following is the Report which Mr. Townsend, as the chairman of the committee, made to the house. "The committee being sensible how much a subject of this nature is liable to frequent digression and irregularity in the examination of witnesses, and thinking to keep the inquiry as much as possible from running unnecessarily into the stories and transactions of private life, they resolved, very early in their proceedings, to confine themselves to the two points which seemed in their judgment to be referred to them by the house, and they now beg leave to be permitted to follow the same method. These two points are 1st, The manner of admitting lunatics into houses now kept for the reception of lunatics. 2nd, The treatment of them during their confinement. The first person who appeared before the committee was a Mrs. Hester Williams, complaining of her having been carried by stratagem to a house kept for the reception of lunatics, and of the severe treatment she received during her confinement. The next complainant was Mrs. Hawley, whose representations to the committee are as follow: |