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INSANITY , PAST AND PRESENT. 395
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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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' « In The Last Number Of This Journal W...
strangers to do that of which , we are incapable ; yet in reference to the firstwe well know that should our selection be disadvantageous ,
the blame , falls upon ourselves , and our responsibility is in no way lessened . All the sympathy we could expect to get would be , " You
ought to have made more inquiries , you should have insisted upon seeing the whole economy of the house , you should have required
more references , " etc . etc . We ought to have the same cold comfort offered us when our negligence , our indifference , our parsimony ,
our ignorance—the motive little signifies—has caused a similar result in respect to a friend or relation mentally afflicted . Lest we
may be thought harsh , we subjoin an extract from Lord Shaftesbury _' s evidence on the subject : —
" We inquire very much whether friends have visited the patientsand I am sorry to say that the answer in most cases is ,
that the , friends have taken little or no care of . them ; and that is one of the most melancholy circumstances "with regard to these afflicted
persons . As I said before , a _jDatient becomes morally dead in the estimation of his relatives ; they think that he has _broLight the taint
of insanity upon them ; partly the heart is seared , and partly they are afraidor in a confused and agitated state , and the result is ,
that the wretched , patient is in some instances altogether abandoned . In some cases , many relations discharge their duties in a most
affectionate manner ; but a large proportion of them do no such thingand in case of any Act being passed , I think there should be
a compulsory ; clause , making it obligatory on relatives , either by themselves or by their agents , to visit their friends , shut up in an
asylum . We have a case before us at the present time , in which a gentleman has placed his wife as a single patient ; and in order
that she may be as far removed from him as possible , he has sent her into a distant county , and for two years he has neither seen her
nor inquired about her . " When once we have learnt to look upon insanity as a bodily
disease , and consequently amenable to medical skill , it loses many of its terrors . When the rumor of a coming pestilence reaches us , we
instantly know where to turn for succor , and the best means to lto divert its threatened ravages ; and not more surely are
t app yphus y and ague its forerunners , and mark the spot where it will find a kindred affinitythan are unbridled affections , ill-regulated
, tempers , and intemperate habits the sure precursors of insanity . We have both to prevent and to cure ; and , above all , we have to
learn , that not only is the health of the mind as well as body in our own keepingbut that by bringing our affections within the
limits of our reason , , and by checking , on the high moral ground of individual responsibility , every predisposition to self-indulgence ,
unsullied the clearness' and brihtness of our we intellects may preserve amid trials and sorrows which have unhinged g the minds
of hundreds of our fellow-creatures . The same education that teaches us how to consider insanity in e e 2
Insanity , Past And Present. 395
INSANITY , PAST AND PRESENT . 395
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Feb. 1, 1861, page 395, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01021861/page/35/
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