2. He must have experienced the injustice of mankind, been injured by a
dear friend, or betrayed by a mistress or a wife.
3. He must have experienced, for some considerable time, a miserable
vacuity of soul, and a discontent with every thing in the world.
This association reminds me of a ball that was established in Paris after
the reign of terror, called _Le Bal des Victimes_, to which no person
could be admitted unless they had had a near relation guillotined.
Dr. Schlegel has also given the following statistical table of the
proportion of suicides to various populations--both as regarding counties
and principal cities:
_Countries._ _Proportion of suicides to population._
Sweden 1 in 92,375
The Milanais 1 ... 72,570
Russia, 1819-1820 1 ... 36,860
---- 1824-1827 1 ... 34,246
Prussia 1 ... 14,224
Saxony 1 ... 8,446
St. Petersburg 1 ... 416
London, 18th century 1 ... 10,572
---- 19th century 1 ... 21,491
Paris 1 ... 2,215
Geneva 1 ... 3,714
Berlin, 1788-1797 1 ... 23,066
---- 1798-1807 1 ... 12,917
---- 1813-1822 1 ... 3,312
Hamburg 1 ... 4,800
Leipzig 1 ... 3,143
Milan 1 ... 1,821
Naples 1 ... 27,230
New York 1 ... 9,474
Baltimore 1 ... 15,696
Philadelphia 1 ... 20,000
According to our ingenious author, drunkenness is the chief cause of
suicide in England, Prussia, and Germany; love and gambling in France;
whilst bigotry, or the fear of dying without having received the
sacrament, he supposes, prevents it in Spain, where, comparatively
speaking, suicide is seldom heard of.
The same remark may apply to Italy, where a Roman lady, having heard of
such an action, exclaimed, "_Dev' essere un forestiere; gli Italiani non
sono tanto matti_." She was right, the suicide was a melancholy German
tailor.
In India, where the doctrine of predestination is generally prevalent, it
is calculated that in one year there were forty suicides in a population
of 250,000, twenty-three of which were females.
Arntzenius quotes Gall's opinion, that suicide arises from too great a
predominance of the organ of cautiousness. Combe and other phrenologists
are of opinion, that with this predominance a deficient development of
hope and a large destructiveness must be conjoined.
It has been remarked that in Spain and Portugal, where insanity is
comparatively rare, malconformation of the brain and consequent idiotism
are very frequent.
Since the peace it may be more difficult to arrive at any conclusion on
the subject of increase of lunacy, founded on the admission of lunatics
into public and private establishments, since emigration has carried so
many families and operatives of every description abroad, many of whom,
from various disappointments and vexations, might have been predisposed to
insanity.
It appears that in 1836 there existed in England and Wales 6402 lunatics,
7265 idiots--13,667 lunatics and idiots. Of paupers alone, or lunatics and
idiots, there were 1.00098 of the total population, or 1 in 1024.
However, according to the most probable calculation, the number of
lunatics in England amounts to about 14,000, out of which about 11,000 are
paupers. Idiots are nearly as numerous as lunatics. Sir A. Halliday states
the former to amount to 5741, and the latter to 6806. To this it must be
observed that many harmless idiots are allowed to remain in their usual
residence. In Wales it appears that idiots are to lunatics in the
proportion of seven to one. The difficulty of obtaining any certain
information on this subject, however, is such, that it is scarcely
possible to decide the question with any chance of a probable certainty.
In regard to the prevalence of lunacy in other countries, the following
are curious statistical statements:
In Spain, in 1817, according to the report of Dr. Luzuriaga, there only
existed in the asylums of Toledo, Granada, Cordova, Valencia, Cadiz,
Saragossa, and Barcelona, 509 lunatics--only fifty were in the hospitals
of Cadiz, sixty in that of Madrid, and thirty-six in the kingdom of
Granada.
In Italy, in twenty-five asylums in Turin, Genoa, Milan, Brescia, Verona,
Venice, Parma, Modena, Bologna, Ferrara, Florence, Sienna, Lucca, and
Rome, Mr. Brierre only found 3441 patients. The population of these parts
of Italy amounting to about 16,789,000 inhabitants, which gives one
lunatic to 4879 persons.
Scott, who accompanied Lord Macartney's embassy to China, observed that
very few insane persons were to be found there. Humboldt states that
madness is rare amongst the natives of South America. Carr made the same
remark in Russia. In Spain and Italy, religious melancholy, and that most
vexatious species of insanity called _erotomania_, are the more common.
In the savage tribes of Africa and America insanity is very rare. Dr.
Winterbotham affirms, that among the Africans near Sierra Leone, mania is
a disease which seldom if ever occurs. Idiotism was likewise a rare
phenomenon among them. Among the negro slaves in the West Indies it is
scarcely known, and during three years' residence in the Bahamas, only one
case of monomania fell under my observation. Amongst the native races of
America it scarcely exists. From these observations we may conclude, with
Esquirol, that insanity belongs almost exclusively to civilized races of
men, that it scarcely exists among savages, and is rare in barbarous
countries. To what circumstance are we to attribute this exemption?
Possibly it may be attributed to simplicity in living, which predisposes
to less disease and morbid varieties of organization, and to the absence
of that refined education which exposes man to the artificial wants and
miseries of high civilization. It is moreover probable that the constant
occupation which the existence of the savage requires to satisfy his
absolute necessities, does not leave him leisure time to ponder over
gloomy ideas and fictitious sufferings. In addition to these
circumstances, Dr. Pritchard has justly remarked, that we might also
conjecture that congenital predisposition is wanting in the offspring of
uncivilized races. The same author admits the probability of the brain
receiving a different development in the progeny of cultivated races, or
of those whose mental faculties have been awakened.
Various professions have been supposed to exercise much influence on the
intellectual faculties. The following observations at the Salpetriere
during one year may tend to illustrate this subject:
Field labourers 43
Servants 51
Needlework women 85
Cooks 16
Shopkeepers 21
Pedlars 16
Shoemakers 8
House-painters and varnishers 5
Housekeepers 192
Women of the town 33
In Mr. Esquirol's establishment:
Farmers 3
Military men 33
Seamen 3
Merchants 50
Students 25
Clerks in public offices 21
Engineers 2
Lawyers 11
Chemists 4
Physicians 4
Artists 8
According to the prevalence of the ideas connected with their former
pursuits do we observe the hallucination of these unfortunate persons to
be of a different character. Dr. Abercrombie relates the case of a Scotch
clergyman, who was brought before a jury to be what is called in Scotland
_cognosced_, or declared incapable of managing his affairs. Amongst the
acts of extravagance alleged against him was, that he had burnt his
library. When he was asked by the jury what account he would give of this
part of his conduct, he replied in the following terms: "In the early part
of my life I had imbibed a liking for a most unprofitable study, namely,
controversial divinity. On reviewing my library, I found a great part of
it to consist of books of this description, and I was so anxious that my
family should not be led to follow the same pursuits, that I determined to
burn the whole." He gave answers equally plausible to questions which
were put to him respecting other parts of his conduct; and the result was,
that the jury found no sufficient ground for cognoscing him; but in the
course of a fortnight from that time, he was in a state of decided mania.
What a school of humility is a lunatic asylum! What a field of observation
does it not present to the philosopher who ranges among its inmates! We
find the same aberrations that obtain in society; similar errors, similar
passions, similar miserable self-tormenting chimeras, empty pride,
worthless vanity, and overweening ambition. There we
See that noble and most sovereign reason,
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh.
Each madhouse has its gods and priests, its sovereigns and its subjects,
terrific mimicry of worldly superstitions, pomp, pride, and degradation!
There, tyranny rules with iron sway, until the keeper's appearance makes
tyrants know there does exist a power still greater than their own. In
madhouses egotism prevails as generally as in the world, and nothing
around the lunatic sheds any influence unless relating to his wretched
self. In this struggle between the mind and body, this constant action and
reaction of the moral and the corporeal energies, when reason has yielded
to the brute force of animal passions, and the body with all its baseness
has triumphed over the soul, one cannot but think of Plutarch's fanciful
idea, that, should the body sue the mind for damages before a court of
justice, it would be found that the defendant had been a ruinous tenant to
the plaintiff.
In many cases of insanity we observe a singular fertility of glowing
imagination and a vivacity of memory which is often surprising. Dr. Willis
mentions a patient who was subject to occasional attacks of insanity, and
who assured him that he expected the paroxysms with impatience, as they
proved to him a source of considerable delight. "Every thing," he said,
"appeared easy to me. No obstacles presented themselves either in theory
or in practice. My memory acquired of a sudden a singular degree of
perfection. Long passages of Latin authors occurred to my mind. In general
I have great difficulty in finding rhythmical terminations, but then I
could write verse with as much facility as prose."
Old associations thus recalled into the mind are often mixed up with
recent occurrences, in the same manner as in dreaming. Dr. Gooch mentions
a lady who became insane in consequence of an alarm of fire in her
neighbourhood. She imagined that she was transformed into the Virgin Mary,
and that a luminous halo beamed round her head.
It is said that the Egyptians placed a mummy at their festive board, to
remind man of mortality. Would not a frequent visit to a lunatic asylum
afford a wholesome lesson to the reckless despot, the proud statesman, and
the arbitrary chieftain? There they might converse with tyrants,
politicians, and self-created heroes, in all the naked turpitude of the
evil passions, who in their frantic gestures would show them that which
they wish to be--that which the world considers they are! Often would they
hear the maniac express the very thoughts that ruffle their own pillows,
until the dreaded bell that announces the doctor's visit, and which with
one loud peal destroys his fond illusions, herald of that knell which
sooner or later must call them from the busy world they think their own.
How beautifully has Filmer expressed the madman's fears!
See yon old miser laden with swelling bags
Of ill-got gold, with how much awkward haste
He limps away to shelter! See how he ducks,
And dives, and dodges with the gods; and all
Only in hope to avoid, for some few days
Perhaps, the just reward of his own sad extortions.
The hot adulterer, now all chill and impotent
With fear, leaps from the polluted bed,
And crams himself into a cranny!
There mighty men of blood, who make a trade
Of murder, forget their wonted fierceness;
Out-nois'd, they shrink aside, and shake for fear
O' th' louder threat'nings of the angry gods.
Whatever may be the nature of insanity or our fallacious views regarding
it, it is a matter of great consolation to find that our mode of treating
it is at last founded on rational and humane principles. The unfortunate
lunatic is no longer an object of horror and disgust, chained down like a
wild beast, and sunk by ignorance or avarice, even below the level of that
degradation in the scale of human beings, to which it had pleased
Providence to reduce him,--we no longer behold him rising from his foul
and loathsome bed of straw, scantily covered with filthy tatters, his hair
and beard wild and grisly--his eyes under the influence of constant
excitement, darting menacing looks--the foam bubbling through his gnashing
teeth--clanking his fetters with angry words and gestures, threatening
heaven and earth--gazed at with dismay, through massive bars--the very
female seeming of doubtful sex:
Her unregarded locks
Matted like fury-tresses, her poor limbs
Chain'd to the ground; and stead of those delights
Which happy lovers taste, her keeper's stripes,
A bed of straw, and a coarse wooden dish
Of wretched sustenance.[18]
Now, the unfortunate persons are restored to social life as much as their
sad condition allows; they enjoy every comfort that can solace them in
their lucid intervals, when their hallucinations cease; in illness they
are treated with kindness and liberality, and in health, their former
associations with the busy world, are recalled by labour, voluntarily
performed or stimulated by the incentive of some additional comfort. No
coercion is resorted to, except to prevent the furious maniac from
injuring himself and others, and then, such means are adopted that
restrain his violence without a painful process. Even the straight
waistcoat, which impedes respiration, is generally banished in all
well-regulated establishments, and belts, sleeves, and muffs, which merely
secure the hands, without preventing a free motion of the articulations,
are usually resorted to. To such an extent is healthy occupation carried
on in lunatic asylums, that at this moment at Hanwell, out of upwards of
600 inmates under my care, 421 are at work and distributed as follows:
_Males._
57 Working in the garden and grounds.
53 Handicrafts at various trades.
38 Assistants in the wards.
28 Picking coir, or the external fibre of the cocoa-nut,
for stuffing mattresses, &c.
2 Clerks in the office.
----
178
----
_Females._
120 At needlework.
2 Making brushes.
21 In the kitchen and dairy.
21 Assisting in the wards.
26 Picking coir.
30 Working in the garden.
23 In the laundry.
----
243
----
Hanwell may be said to be an asylum for incurables, since it is doomed to
receive old cases that scarcely ever afford a chance of recovery; to which
are added a large proportion of the idiots and epileptics of Middlesex,
whose families cannot support them.
Let us hope from this gradual amelioration in the condition of this
illfated class of our fellow-creatures, that every institution, both
public and private, will shortly be conducted upon a similar plan, having
sufficient grounds attached to it, to give occupation to such of their
inmates as may still be able to enjoy some share, however trifling it may
be, of the blessings of this life.