Account of the rise and progress of the asylum, proposed to be established, near Philadelphia : for the relief of persons deprived of the use of their reason : with an abridged account of the Retreat, a similar institution near York, in England.

Date:
1814
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Account of the rise and progress of the asylum, proposed to be established, near Philadelphia : for the relief of persons deprived of the use of their reason : with an abridged account of the Retreat, a similar institution near York, in England. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    56 M frequently happens to the helpless insane, una to bed-ridden patients; as my attendance in a large work-house, in private mad-houses, and Bethlem Hospital, can amply testify.* Haslam also observes, that the patients in Bethlem Hospital, are particularly subject to mortifications of the feet; and this fact is so well established from former accidents, that there is an express order of the house, that every pa- tient, under strict confinement, shall have his feet examined every morning and evening in the cold weather, by the keeper, and also have them constantly wrapped in flannel ; and those who are permitted to go about, are always to be found as near to the fire as they can get, during the winterseason.f Dr. Pinel also confesses, that seldom has a whole year elapsed, during which no fatal acci- dent has taken place, in the Hospital de Bicetre, (in France,) from the action of cold upon the ex- tremities. Happily, in the Institution I am now describ- ing, this calamity is hardly known ; and no in- stance of mortification has occurred, in which it has been, in any degree connected with cold or confinement. Indeed tiie patients are never found to require such a degree of restraint, as to prevent the use of considerable exercise, or to render it at all necessary to keep their feet wrapped in flannel. It will be proper here to observe, that the ex- perience of the Retreat, fully confirms the opi- nion of several respectable modern writers, that * Cvowtlier, p. 61. •j- Observations on Madness, p. 84.