It seems to have been long, before the assistance afforded in other forms of human infirmity was extended to persons bereft of reason. Their actions and appearance being usually repulsive or alarming, they were avoided, and suffered to wander about uncared for until this freedom became inconvenient or dangerous, and were then tied up, and beaten and starved, kept out of sight, and forgotten. Remnants of this system were to be recognised long after asylums were built for lunatics, and even to a period within the remembrance of persons now living. It is, indeed, only within the last thirty years that the exertions of the Society of Friends, which commenced at York about forty years sooner, became really successful in awakening general attention to the treatment required to restore health of body and of mind in those affected with the dreadful malady of insanity.

I wish it were possible to state, that all the French physicians are as judicious and humane in their prescription of the douche bath, as M. Leuret appears to be, but they certainly order it too frequently as a means of compelling their patients to work, or with the hope and intention of producing a moral effect, which forcibly remind us of the attempt to wash the black man white, of our early fables. In England the douche would not be recognised as a part of ‘moral treatment.’ We are at the present day agreed in thinking that intimidation and coercion may make or modify the symptoms of insanity, but can seldom produce permanently good effects; and I think the douche bath is rightly considered to be legitimately employed only for its physical effect as a revulsive, a refrigerant, or a stimulant. There is one other effect of the douche bath, the ‘shock’ for which it is still sometimes ordered; but I think it a remedy of very questionable utility. I have never tried its efficacy, or seen its effects, but a very well known and esteemed physician states decidedly, that the “physical shock” has been known to produce a good moral impression; and although it is doubtful whether he intends by the expression “physical shock,” the meaning that his words may be taken to convey, they lead us to the consideration of the direct effect of the “shock” upon the nervous system, and the probability of its curative power in cases of its derangement. Dr. Copland in his marvellous work, just completed, the “Medical Dictionary,” thus describes the effect of a sudden douche: “When the stream is considerable, and falls from any height upon the head, its action on the nervous system is often very remarkable, and approaches more nearly than any phenomenon with which I am acquainted, to electro-motive or galvanic agency.

A Commission of Lunacy took place at York Castle, on the 23rd and 24th of July last, before F. Barlow, Esq., one of the Masters in Lunacy, relative to the state of mind of Mrs. Mary Jane Turner, the wife of Charles Turner, Esq., official assignee in the Liverpool Bankruptcy Court, then resident at Acomb House, near the city of York.

On the 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, and 27th days of August, a commission of lunacy was opened by Edward Winslow, Esq., Master in Lunacy, and a special jury, at the large hall of St. Clement's inn, Strand, for the purpose of ascertaining the state of mind of Lawrence Ruck, Esq., of Sittingbourne, Kent, and Montgomeryshire. The case created considerable excitement, there being a large number of gentlemen interested present.

The above reported inquisitions have created a storm of indignation in the newspaper press, which cannot fail to be of the utmost interest to the members of our Association, first, as a psychological phenomenon; and, secondly, as an event which may possibly have some influence upon future legislation.

We are sorry to learn from our esteemed associate Dr. Dickson, that all the prejudices and difficulties which we had to overcome, in establishing even for a time a sea-side residence for our patients at Exmoutli, have been experienced by him in the attempt to obtain a license for a private lunatic asylum at Southport. We trust that the Justices at Quarter Sessions will be too impartial to permit the selfish opposition of a few interested persons, whose sympathy with their suffering fellow-creatures is guided by that most sensitive electrometer, the breeches pocket, to shut out the insane from the cheerful and invigorating influences of a residence by the sea side. We have already stated in this Journal how entirely we lived down all the fears and prejudices arrayed against us at Exmouth, and we sincerely trust that Dr. Dickson will be able to do the same. The following choice specimen of mural literature was posted about Southport, for the humane purpose of raising the mad-dog cry.