TREATING THE INSANE

Evening Star, Issue 12674, 30 November 1905, Page 2

TREATING THE INSANE

New treatments for lunatics which give promise of success will naturally be welcomed, but it is doubtful if public opinion will accord favorable reception to the call for more " severe'' methods. Cold baths may be all right for the insane, but t' y are at present regarded as punishmei.t. That, at any rate, » to bj inferred from the secrecy observed at a great asylum where the process was employed. Two or three of tlio male patient* were of the fractious order; they would kill their keepers with half a chance, and simply make hay of the padded room. One thing would restore them to docility—the cold shower bath. A few seconds under the cooling influence of the chilly stream, and they came out meek as lambs. But how they hated it; hated, too, the medical officer who ordered it. Tbcy lay in wait for him. The day came, when most of the keepers were oat at a picnic with the tractable patients. Then these violent ones fell ajooa the doctor and

all but killed him. Ho left there a physical and mental wreck. It would be hardly safe to try the experiment of putting a bullet through the brain of asylum patients, or throwing them on to the railway. But, accidentally, cures have been effected in that mannev. A female lunatic recovered possession of her mental faculties when a pistol exploded and the bullet penetrated her brain. Nearer at hand—at Earlswood Asylum—there was a not lees remarkable instance. A lunatic escaped when the railway company were building a tunnel near the asylum. A pr.Hs--1 ing tram lir.ocked him down. With physical healing came alto restoration of the brain, and the man left the hospital sound in mind and body. But these are lessons too deep for us to ponder. The best that

the layman may hope to do is to emulate' a former Countess of Devon, who suddenly found the door of a room shut behind her by a servant who had suddenly gone mad " Now you must say your prayers," she said, "for I have a commission from heaven to kill you." "Oh, but you daro not 30 that, for here is a reprieve," said the lady, at the same time holding up a white table napkin. It saved her life ; the woman gave in at once.—' St. James's Gazutte.'