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.