The writer has in his possession a mass of private letters which passed between his father and Mr. Higgins on these cases, which indicate their combined endeavours, made (under the fiercest opposition) to reform the horrible abuses which had converted a well-intentioned charity into a hell upon earth. Mr. Higgins was the author of a book on Mahomet, the remarkable work on the Celtic Druids (1827), and of "Anacalypsis" (1836). [123] April, 1814, pp. 190, 194, 198. [124] (1) "Practical Hints on the Construction and Economy of Pauper Lunatic Asylums; including Instructions to the Architects who offered Plans for the Wakefield Asylum, and a Sketch of the most approved Design." York, 1815. (2) "On the Construction and Management of Hospitals for the Insane," by Dr. Jacobi, with Introduction by Samuel Tuke, 1841. Born 1784; died 1857. An Honorary Member of the Medico-Psychological Association. [125] The incompleteness of this Parliamentary return was shown by the fact that, a few weeks afterwards, Sir Andrew Halliday found that in Norfolk there were 112 instead of 42. [126] 51 Geo. III., c. 74; also in 1815, May 2 (55 Geo. III., c. 46), independently of the Report of the Select Committee. Overseers were to make returns of all lunatics and idiots within their parishes. These Acts do not touch "Private mad-houses"--only paupers. [127] "What strenuous efforts fruitlessly combined to accomplish, a little volume has at once achieved. I hardly need name Mr. Samuel Tuke's account of the Retreat. Mr. Tuke's work, operating on a suspicious and irritable mind, produced the letters signed 'Evigilator;' the public attention became aroused, doubts and surmises were started. Either confident in right, or daring in wrong, a general challenge was given; that challenge was answered, with what results it is needless to add" (_vide_ "Papers respecting the York Lunatic Asylum," by S. W. Nicoll, Esq., 1816). [128] "Les Principes à suivre dans la Fondation et la Construction des Asiles d'Aliénés," Paris, 1853, p. 226. [129] _American Journal of Insanity_, April, 1856. [130] _Ibid._, October, 1863, p. 205. [131] "Review of the Early History of the Retreat," by S. Tuke, 1846. [132] Referring to the practice at the Retreat as given in the "Description," the editor of the _Medical Repository_, 1817, after observing, "We are told that in violent maniacal paroxysms, depletion having failed to procure quiescence, a full meal of meat and good porter for supper produced the desired effect, and that this mode has since been very frequently and successfully employed," adds that if this be true, the general system of well-known physicians, that of pursuing depletion through "paroxysm and remission," cannot be right. [133] Tuke's "Description," p. 113. [134] Page 156.