The North American Review Author:Making of America Project Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: benefits, men were slow to believe that there was no natural affinity between insanity, and chains and stripes, and one could not traverse a lunatic hospital eve... more »n in England, without witnessing whips, fetters, or iron collars. To inspire the patient with fear, and break his will, at all hazards, by blows, confinement, and every species of contumely, if milder means could not effect the object, was the cardinal principle in the moral treatment of the insane, up to a very recent period. Within the memory of the present generation, and within two hours' ride of this city, was a private establishment where bleeding and purgatives were not more relied upon, than harsh words, whipping, and partial drowning. The more refractory were inclosed in a coffin-like box pierced with holes, and then lowered into a well where they were kept submerged in the water, until the bubbles of air ceased to rise, when they were brought up, and by rubbing, warmth, and other restoratives, fully resuscitated. No attempt was made to conceal these practices. They were well known in the community, and supposed to belong to the most approved methods of treatment. In the infancy of even our most distinguished hospitals there was a deficiency of furniture and of other little conveniences, and a cheerlessness in all their appointments, which would scarcely be tolerated now. In this country, the history of hospitals for the insane is comprised, for the most part, within a comparatively recent period. To the Old Dominion belongs the honor of possessing the first institution devoted exclusively to the care of the insane. It originated in an act of the Colonial government in 1769, and the building was opened for patients in 1773. Into the general hospitals founded in the principal cities, the insane had been admitted...« less