The bold proceeding, as it seemed in those days, of freeing the lunatics at the Bicêtre from their fetters, constitutes Pinel's title to honour--an honour of which no man will succeed in robbing him. He will be remembered when Dequin[138] is forgotten. Pinel, although his writings would have made him eminent as a physician had he never rendered his name illustrious in reference to the insane, did not, as a study of his life abundantly proves, liberate the patients at the Bicêtre from their chains in direct consequence of his medical knowledge of insanity, but mainly, if not entirely, from the compassion which he felt for their miserable condition. His knowledge, great before, was vastly increased after he had placed the patients in a more favourable state for medical observation; in fact, it is obvious that the opportunities of scientific research, and specially of observing the satisfactory progress of those labouring under the disease, were greatly augmented from the moment he introduced a humane system of treatment. Had my sketch comprised France as well as England, I should have attempted to give a description of the work he performed in Paris. But I must not be tempted to go beyond my subject, and as a matter of fact the course of French and English reform in the treatment of the insane was entirely distinct and independent.[139] FOOTNOTES: [100] "By Tho. Fallowes, M.D., at his House in Lambeth-Marsh, and to be had there, or at Mr. Jones's Haberdasher in Hats, over against the _Pump_ in _Chancery_ Lane, and nowhere else," 1705. A second edition appeared in 1814. [101] In his Review for 1706 there is a "Scheme for the Management of Mad-houses," with a case of abuse. [102] As will be seen by the date, the elder Pitt and Fox. [103] The physician referred to at p. 87. [104] 14 Geo. III., c. 49 (1774). [105] "The Early History of Charles James Fox," by G. O. Trevelyan, 1880. [106] Letter written July 30, 1767. [107] "Lady Chatham also, when writing confidentially to Lord Shelburne in the autumn of 1767, observes, 'I wish I could say there was any material change in the state of my Lord's health, but we are forbid to expect that, until he can have a fit of gout.'" [108] "History of England from the Peace of Utrecht," vol. v. pp. 166, 188 (edit. 1853). [109] Page 203. [110] See "Evidence before the House of Commons." See also "Debates on the Regency," Hansard, vol. xxvii. [111] "American Journal of Insanity," July, 1855. [112] See the last edition, corrected by himself (1780), of his "Primitive Physic, or an Easy and Natural Method of curing most Diseases." [113] Page 82. [114] "The State of the Prisons in England and Wales, with Preliminary Observations," by John Howard, F.R.S., 3rd edit., 1784. [115] Ray, _American Journal of Insanity_, vol. iv. p. 112. [116] "Review of the Early History of the Retreat," by S. Tuke. 1846.