Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British IslesTuke, Daniel Hack
History
Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British Isles
Tuke, Daniel Hack
Mental health laws -- Great Britain; Mental illness -- Great Britain; Mentally ill -- Care; Psychiatric hospitals -- Great Britain
The dates of opening of these thirty-three private asylums, so far as
known, were: three in the last century, to wit, in 1744, 1758, and 1759;
one in each of the following years, 1802, 1811, 1814, 1816, 1823, 1825,
1826, 1829, 1832, 1833, 1834, 1836, 1837, 1840, 1842, and 1843; and two
in 1830, 1831, 1838, and 1839.
Passing from London to the provinces, we find fifty-five provincial
licensed houses receiving private patients only, and forty-four
receiving paupers, of which one was in Wales (Briton Ferry, near
Swansea). The known dates of opening were: in 1718, Fonthill-Gifford in
Wilts; in 1744, Lea Pale House, Stoke, near Guildford; in 1766, Belle
Grove House, Newcastle-on-Tyne; in 1791, Droitwitch; and in 1792,
Ticehurst, Sussex; one in each of the following years, 1800, 1802, 1803,
1806, 1808, 1812, 1814, 1816, 1818, 1821, 1824, and 1829; two in each of
the years 1820, 1822, 1826, 1828, 1832, 1834, 1836, 1837, 1838, and
1842; three in each of the years 1825, 1831, 1839, and 1843; four in
1833; five in 1830, 1835, and 1840; and, finally, six in 1841. One of
the asylums opened in 1843 was that in Wales, containing only three
patients.
Of some asylums found by the Commissioners to be in a very disgraceful
state, one is described as "deficient in every comfort and almost every
convenience. The refractory patients were confined in strong chairs,
their arms being also fastened to the chair. One of these--a woman--was
entirely naked on both the days the Commissioners visited the asylum,
and without doubt during the night. The stench was so offensive that it
was almost impossible to remain there." In another, "in the small
cheerless day-room of the males, with only one (unglazed) window, five
men were restrained by leg-locks, called hobbles, and two were wearing,
in addition, iron handcuffs and fetters from the wrist to the ankle;
they were all tranquil. Chains were fastened to the floors in many
places, and to many of the bedsteads." The Commissioners report of
another house that "in one of the cells for the women, the dimensions of
which were eight feet by four, and in which there was no table and only
two wooden seats, we found three females confined. There was no glazing
to the window.... The two dark cells, which joined the cell used for a
day-room, are the sleeping-places for these three unfortunate beings.
Two of them sleep in two cribs in one cell.... There is no window and no
place for light or air, except a grate over the doors." The condition of
the floor and straw, on which the patients lay, it is unnecessary to
describe.
We should not be doing justice to the history of non-restraint if we did
not state in full what the Commissioners found at this period to be the
opinion of the superintendents of the asylums in England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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