HUMANITY AND INSANITY. 223 



We can imagine what Bicetre must have been when Pinel took 

 charge a jail, house of correction, penitentiary, and hospital, all in one ; 

 and its inmates assassins, debauchees, sick patients, paupers, idiots 

 lived in fearful promiscuousness ; it was, in fact, a moral cess-pool. The 

 insane, as being no better than wild-beasts, were kept separate, shut up in 

 pens six feet square, to which light and air were admitted only through 

 a small opening in the door. There was a bed of loose straw, renewed 

 every month. The patient had a chain around the waist, besides be- 

 ing manacled and fettered. He received neither care nor medical 

 treatment, but was left to exhaust himself in his paroxysms, affording 

 amusement to curious visitors, who nocked to witness the strange 

 antics of the madmen. Pinel had the invaluable assistance, in carry- 

 ing out his reforms, of a humble hospital attendant, who had himself 

 by practical experience arrived at Pinel's own conclusions years before. 

 " When the insane patients become too violent, what do you do ? " 

 asked Pinel. " I take off their chains, they then become quiet." Pinel 

 ordered the irons to be struck off f all the patients. Among them was 

 an old soldier of the guards, a man of herculean strength, and a violent 

 lunatic. The physician had his irons taken off, and then bade him re- 

 move the chains off all the other patients. The old soldier's gratitude 

 was such that he remained for the rest of his life attached to the 

 personal service of Pinel. As Colbert, in persuading Louis XIV. to 

 publish his famous ordinance, had brought. the thaumaturgic ' era to a 

 clese, so Pinel put an end to the era of repression. After a protracted 

 contest, victory declared in favor of common-sense and humanity. 

 Esquirol followed after Pinel, and showed that the physician who would 

 treat mental disorders, must study the various symptoms ; and this 

 he can do only by daily contact with the insane. Ferrus discovered 

 the importance of giving to the insane employment of some kind, as a 

 means of restoring them to a healthy condition of mind. While thus, 

 in France, science was engaged in establishing the moraj bases of the 

 disease, Roller was founding a model establishment in Germany, on 

 the principle of surrounding the patient with all those influences which . 

 could bring his thoughts back into their normal courses. His long ex- 

 perience went to show the advantage of employing opium and its de- 

 rivatives in the treatment of mental disorders. These are the founders 

 of the science of Mental Alienation : others have developed their prem- 

 ises and added to their teachings, but to Pinel, Esquirol, Ferrus, and 

 Roller, the human race owes a debt of everlasting gratitude for having 

 first opened the way. Abridged from the Revue des Deux Mondes. 



1 Thaumaturgic, working miracles, exciting wonder. 



