INSANITY AND INSANE ASYLUMS (CLASSIC REPRINT)

Excerpt from Insanity and Insane AsylumsIn no ailment, which humanity is heir to, has there been so great a change, as to its pathology and its treatment, as in insanity. In ancient time lunatics were considered as pos sessed of devils, and under the especial influence of evil spirits. It was supposed that these demons acknowledged no law, that they came not in the usual way of human disorder, nor would they yield to the usual remedies. This supernatu ral disease required a similar power to heal it. Men then looked for the especial intervention of Heaven, to arrest these mental vagaries. And then miracles were wrought and the in~ sane restored. But when the age of miracles had passed by, superstition still preserved the same pathology, while religion ceased to offer the same means of relief, and as this pathology was out of the reach of human investigation - so no science bethought itself, to apply any human aid for restoration, and the poor lunatic was left in hopeless alienation, a prey to his wild fancies or his terrible oppression. Unfortunately this theory of the disease has remained till within the last cen tury, and, notwithstanding the immense improvements that were made in the treatment of all other derangements, almost none has been made in those of the mind.Cases of insanity so often were decisively of a moral cast, and connected with fury, madness, and crime, that it was no difficult matter for the world to suppose that these were de serted of Heaven, and given over to the evil one, and that therefore, the sane were called upon to defend themselves against these dangerous men, and to put such restraints upon them by prisons and chains as would save themselves from in.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitall