Twentieth annual report of the Suffolk Lunatic Asylum : December, 1857.

  • Suffolk Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
[1858]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Twentieth annual report of the Suffolk Lunatic Asylum : December, 1857. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Now this is a very interesting and important fact, whether considered in connection with Physiology, or Pscychology. It is exactly what we should have presumed would be the case, before making any observations : it is a proof that all logical deductions from the well-established laws of science, will be confirmed by experienee: it proves moreover that various functions of the nervous system are quite unaffected by the central disease of insanity—that, moreover, those functions intentionally called into exercise, by being provided with their correlative objects, become means of cure for the disturbed functions of the system: and also that the systematic observa¬ tion of these laws and connections, and operations of physical sympathetic action, must, in great measure, constitute the foundation of all sound treatment of the insane. Not only is the effect of colour, thus an important element in hygienic science, but also the effect of various degrees of light, which exactly correspond, and which we might in like manner have predicted. A writer in a very valuable publication, “ The Builder,” says, “ that from several years’ observation in rooms of various sizes, used as manufacturing rooms, and occupied by females for twelve hours a day, he found that the occupants of those rooms which had large windows with large frames of glass in the four sides of the room, so that the sun’s rays penetrated through the room during the whole day, were much more healthy than the workers in other rooms which were lighted only through small panes of glass.” It was observed, also “ that the workers who occupied one room, were cheerful and healthy, while those of another similar room, and engaged in the same kind of work, were all inclined to melancholy, complaining of pains in the forehead and eyes, and often ill and unable to work.” As both rooms in this case were equally well drained and ventilated, there was nothing to account for the difference but the different degrees of light introduced ; there was a cheerful brightness in the healthy room, and a dingy dullness in the melancholic one.