1824.] 
incurable were placed in the Hotel 
Dieu; and, on the first returns of 
reason, were remitted to their friends. 
They are now under the same roof with 
the incurables, and under the same 
physician. Should there appear any 
symptoms of recovery, the physicians 
prolong the term of convalescence till 
the cure appears completed. The 
incurables remain in the hospitals, 
though their cases should not be dan- 
gerous, and they might be sent back 
to their friends. 
In 1800, the insane were lodged in 
the Hotel Dieu, indiscriminately, with 
other patients. In the hospitals of 
Petites Maisons, Bicetre, and Salt- 
petriére, they were laid up in cells, 
where now any animal of the com- 
monest kind would not be confined in 
the Jardin du Roi. Many of them 
were also loaded with heavy chains. 
About that time, on the establish- 
ment of the Council General of Hospi- 
tals, and due enquiries taking place, 
as if the sacred flame of sympathy had 
suddenly kindled, chains, iron collars, 
irons at the feet and hands, were laid 
aside, the cells or boxes aired and 
well seasoned, and the most auspicious 
consequences ensued. Successive al- 
terations have been made in the 
Bicetre and Saltpetriére, by enlarging 
the old, and adding new, buildings; 
extensive gardens and places for pro- 
menading have been annexed; and 
the cells under-ground, which at La 
Saltpetriére were real dungeons, are 
generally in disuse. Most of the 
insane are in dormitories ; and expe- 
rience has shown, that cells or private 
boxes are only for such as, in their 
violent paroxysms, would injure them- 
selves or others. 
Accommodations for 1500 new pa- 
tients have been thus provided, each 
individual sleeps alone, and there are 
covered reservoirs to wash and bathe 
in. The articles of food are much 
superior, both for quantity and quality. 
At each hospital, the pharmacy or 
stock of drugs, is abundantly supplied, 
and various kinds of pumps are putin 
use at the baths. Clinical lectures are 
delivered at the Bicetre by M. Esqui- 
rol, and pupils thereby formed ; whose 
agency must be beneficial and neces. 
sary to the cure of this deplorable 
infirmity. 
Every kind of liberty which can be 
judged compatible with safety, or 
capable of calling forth and exercising 
the faculties, is allowed. Labour is 
On the Ascension of Our Saviour. 
37 
one of the means resorted to; and 
under its influence the passions and 
affections have been controled, and 
improvement found to depend on it. 
At the Saltpetriére are working cham- 
bers, where the women are employed 
in sewing linen. Visits to individuals 
are only admitted by leave of the 
physicians. 
The number of maniacs does not 
rise to a twentieth part of the other 
patients; but such as have only slighter 
paroxysms are not reckoned. In the 
period of age, itis from thirty to forty, 
from forty to fifty, and from fifty to 
sixty, that the numbers are most 
considerable. The instances wherein 
alienation is assignable to moral 
causes, in proportion to physical, is in 
men from two to five, and in women 
from two to three. A proportion of 
one-tenthis attributed to hard drinking. 
—— 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
S itis reasonable to suppose that 
there are among your correspon- 
dents persons of all professions and 
pursuits, I presume there is scarcely 
any science, or subject of discussion, 
in which enquiry, through your me- 
dium, will not be acceptable. 
After the candid acknowledgment 
of a right reverend prelate of our 
church, (in the system of theology 
which he published a few years since, 
much to his own honour, as well as to 
the edification of the rising generation,) 
that there are some difficulties in the 
sacred _ books which require much 
thought, and some learning, to dissi- 
pate,—no apology can be necessary, 
nor, I hope, any sinister design be 
imputable, for the mention of one 
particular difficulty which has always 
occurred to my mind, and to that of 
others with whom I haye discussed the 
subject, relative to our Saviour’s 
ascension. St. Luke’s account is the 
most full and satisfactory of all the 
evangelists respecting this particular 
event, as well at the conclusion of his 
Gospel as at the beginning of the Acts 
of the Apostles, which latter work is 
universally attributed to his pen. The 
substance of the account given in both 
these places, with the purport of 
which, as far as they relate of the 
subject, the other sacred writers agree, 
is that, after his resurrection, Christ 
remained on earth forty days, con- 
versing continually with his disciples, 
respecting their conduct, the aire 
° 
