At this very period English public opinion had been excited by revelations of cruelty and consequent deaths in the old York Asylum. In 1791 a lady belonging to the Society of Friends was placed in this asylum; her friends were refused admission to visit her, and in a few weeks she died. Inquiries that were made showed great grounds for suspicion, although full details could not be obtained.[18] But with great promptitude William Tuke, a prominent Friend at York, whose family has continued famous for attention to the affairs of the insane, proposed early in 1792 the establishment of a “Retreat” at York for insane patients, in which sympathy should be substituted for unkindness, severity, and stripes. The account given by Samuel Tuke in 1813 of its management is still a model in many respects.[19] Neither Pinel nor the Tukes were however bold enough entirely to dispense with mechanical coercion. In 1818 Esquirol, the true successor of Pinel in France, found maltreatment still generally prevalent in the provincial asylums of France. In England mechanical restraint continued to be largely employed till Conolly’s time, and survives in some private asylums to the present day. We cannot give further details on this head, but hasten to mention the names of two men, Dr. Charlesworth and Mr. Gardiner Hill, who must ever be remembered as the first to give up mechanical coercion entirely in the small asylum of Lincoln. Dr. Charlesworth, physician to the asylum, had for many years diligently watched the effects of mechanical coercion, and gradually lessened the number of instruments of restraint in the asylum. Finally, the total disuse of mechanical restraints was decided on, and put in practice by Mr. Gardiner Hill in 1836 in concert with Dr. Charlesworth, with the most gratifying results. * * * * * We now come to the man who more than any other in England may be said to have established the non-restraint system so firmly that it will never be upset. JOHN CONOLLY was born at Market Rasen in Lincolnshire, in 1794. His father, a member of a good Irish family, died young, and the care of a young family fell on his widow, whose maiden name was Tennyson, and whose patience and self-sacrifice her son ever affectionately acknowledged as the main influence which led to his own success. When his mother ultimately married a French gentleman, a political emigré, the latter taught his stepson French, and imbued him with a genuine taste for and knowledge of the language. Condillac’s essay “On the Origin of Human Knowledge” influenced his mental life. While in his teens his attention was first called to the subject of lunacy by an inspection of the Glasgow Asylum, and he never afterwards ceased to take the deepest interest in it.