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gjvjl I ^ A 5^tT^r(lItirw ¦ : : ¦
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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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The French have 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 terrihle 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 Gibardin ' s article on Roxjssea . u , in the last Revue des Deux Mondes , and yet it will be difficult even for Louis NApor-EON , little as he 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 tbat it can touch him . Saint-Marc Gikardin refers to his articles on the Oontrat 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-Mabc combated it
eupleine rfyuhliqiie , as he now combats at en plein- despotisme . " SsoI 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 absohtte power can exist against which the individual has no rights 3 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 be published in the papers—will not allow the friends to remonstrate openly against tyranny so iniquitous . " It matters but little what is the foim 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 is worth reading for other things than its political allusions . " The Kevolution of 1789 ; " M . Saint-Mabc well says , " only abolished the harriers which ; separated one . province from another , and the privileges which separated one class firom another , to raise above all particular ideas of place , time , and race ,-the ? abstract idea of the State . Equality and centralization , in' shorfc , ' —equality , that sentiment peculiarly French , which compensates the vanity of each by the envy of all—and centralization , that other idea entirely French , wbich 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 that all affairs should be conducted according to one rule . "
Another article in the same Revue , by M . Charles i > e Remusat , 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 . Crabbk and Hood 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 !
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were its effects . In doing this he has not only done , good service to the insane , he 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 allo-wed to wander over the country , beggars and vagabonds , affording sport and mockery . If they became troublesome , they were imprisoned in dungeons ; whipped , as the pTirase was , out of their madness at all events subdued ; and then 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 not in all this Christian land , in which such enormities were wholly unknown . At length , the condition of the mad obtained some attention ; and then massive and gloomy mansions were prepared for them . These were but prisons of the worst description . Small openings in the walls , unglazed , or whetheT glazed or not , guaided with strong iron bars ; narrow corridors , dark cells , desolate courts , where no tree , nor
shrub , nor flower , nor blade of' grass grew ; solitariness , or companionshi p 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 , tl ^ 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 our 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 . lN " o chapel bell assembled the patients for prayer , or suspended , the fierce and dreadful thoughts and curses of the dungeon ; no friendly face did ' good like a medicine . ' People looke ^ . with awe on the outside of such buildings * , after sunset walked far round , to avcid hearing the cries and yells which 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 aTe dangerous creatures , and must te put out of the way" would , however , have shocked the moral sense ; accordingly it was said , ' * These are dangerous creatures they must be confined ; and if they are nbfc 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 ! Esquh'ol's publication of what , he had seen produced a profound impression : ¦—Writing in 1818 , he says , he found the insane naked , or covered Tvith 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 fetters 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 existence in 1827 ; and 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 warmth , 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 beeu " crowded , wet , filthy , unyentilated , and very offensive , " and the dormitories were lighted and aired 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 . Jn a house at Fonthill , in Wiltshire , out of fourteen male patients , only one was without fetters or handcuffs , and only tlireu were out of their sleeping rooms .
The bad feeding , the dirt , and want of clothing were not necessary parts of the system , but they were otFshobts 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 this principle of physical restraint still lingers . It is the weapon of impatient ignorance . . To cane n 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 all severity fails , the boy is declared incorrigible ! While such ideas rule in nurseries and schools , 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 ? Xow 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 bo permitted to suppose a case admitted at Ilanwell , a place wbich know the 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 , lias terrified , his family , broken the furniture of his house , or attacked his neighbours ; or harangued tho public and disturbed th « streets , and resisted all control until overcome by the police . Ho comes to tho asylum bound very tightly , sometimes hand and foot , or fastened in a strait-waistcoat . He ia still violent , but exhausted : ho ia flushed , feverish , thirsty ; 5 n appearance haggard , ami in manner fierce , or Bullen . His voice is hoarse with shouting . Ho is unwashed , unshaved , and half starved . His clothes aro torn and dirty . He has often many bruises ot injuries , which ho has incurred in Ids furious condition . His violence is still droaded , and he exhibits capricious proofs of remaining strength ; so that those who havo brought him to tho asylum aro afraid to stay , and unfelgncdly rejoice to get rid of him ; wondering that any people should be found to tnko e 1 »« rgo of liitn , and earnestly warning them to take caro of themselves .
OUR INSA . NE TORE FATHERS . The Treatment of the Insane teithvut Mechanical Restraints . By John Conolly , M . D . Smith , Elder , and Co . Its iavery useful from timo to time to revive the drooping spirits of tliose -whose faith in progress has received discouragement by meditation on the TOa ° » &tacUa accumulated on its path ; and there is no more effectual method , of reviving such faith than the actual comparison of our present condition in any one oaxdinal and capital point with that of our forefathers , vynore ^ eloquencc ig powerless , and argument of small weight , a plain statement of fact * *» U cwry conviction . » ucli a Blatettwmt -wo road in tho work before us . Dr . Conolly ' s purpose 5 , !?? - U . . «^ e necessity of treating insane people upon tho prin-? n P l !« ^ ? d P * « an *? i *« d most other Kaylums of tne present day . cuSS ^ TM ™ . ™ ri under any form of tho old system . To make clear h . a case he is obliged to examine what tUe old system was and what
Or the case may ho that of a female patient , equally violent , but whoso frantic exovtions proceeds from a droad sho entertains that some fearful punishment is impending over her ; that sho is to be cut to pieces , or to ho burned ulive ; and . this for crimes of which she believes herself to bo accused . With these impressions , her thoughts aro probably bont on suicide , as an expiation , or as a monns of escape from sufferings . Cases of infinite variety may bo imagined ; In all of -which confusion , and bewilderment , and terror under all surrounding circumstances , for o timo disturb tho mind . In n } l t ^ ese cases , the first difficulties appear so groat , and tUe dangers 8 ° pressing .
Gjvjl I ^ A 5^Tt^R(Litirw ¦ : : ¦
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Critics are n . 6 t the legislators , bat the judges ana police of literature . . They do riot make lawa—they interpret ana try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
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928 THE LEABEB . [ I ^ o . 340 , Sa 3 vu 3 ipat ,
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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 tho unsuspecting customer with horse-beef ; and now M . Isidore St . Hh-aire publishes a grave book , full of facts and physiology , to show that horseflesh is as good as most oxflesh ; and he demands that a market of horseflesh be regularly established for tho public to eat with secure consciences this excellent beef so long disdained by prejudice . Seriously the book is very interesting , and its conclusions very important , It is entitled , Lettres sur les Substances ' Alimentair ' es et pariiculierement sur la Viands de Cheval . To read it is to be convinced .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 27, 1856, page 928, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2160/page/16/
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