Total abolition of personal restraint in the treatment of the insane : a lecture on the management of lunatic asylums and the treatment of the insane, delivered at the Mechanics' Institution, Lincoln, on the 21st of June, 1838 : with statistical tables, illustrative of the complete practicability of the system advocated in the lecture / by Robert Gardiner Hill.

  • Hill, Robert Gardiner, 1811-1878.
Date:
[1839]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Total abolition of personal restraint in the treatment of the insane : a lecture on the management of lunatic asylums and the treatment of the insane, delivered at the Mechanics' Institution, Lincoln, on the 21st of June, 1838 : with statistical tables, illustrative of the complete practicability of the system advocated in the lecture / by Robert Gardiner Hill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    rately observed, he may be imposed upon, and the patients exposed to unnecessary severity. Wherever Restraint may become neces- sary, owing to the imperfect adaptation of the Building, or to a want of sufficient attendants, the most simple means should be selected. On such an occasion, I do not know of any constraint which would be preferable to that of seclusion in a darkened room. In this Asylum when a patient misconducts himself, he is im- mediately removed to the Refractory Patients' Gallery, where he remains until he has pledged himself that his future conduct shall be more orderly. This is the only method I employ to induce habits of self-control. A maniac is sel- dom known to break his word. Violent cases would be extremely rare in all Asylums, if the no-restraint system were generally adopted : as would Suicides also, if, in conjunction with the above. Dormitories and Night-watches were established ; but to dispense with Restraint altogether such must be the case, or the attempt would be attended with extreme danger. Without the Dormi- tories and Night-watches it would be necessary to restrain such as exhibited a tendency to suicide. Under this system, i. e. the no-re- straint system, cases of insensibility to natural H