JOO 



3Jr. Bakewell on the Tr 



\he receplion of those who are of tlic So- 

 ciety of Friends, I do not see how it 

 could well have be en diffcreut. 



But this docs not prevent me from 

 Ihinkina;, that a public institution, of the 

 same extent, under a difierent system, 

 miglit be productive of four times the 

 good ; contending:, as I do, and nuist do, 

 that recovery from the disease of insa- 

 nity is the only positive good that re- 

 sUits from the treatment of it in larjje 

 jniblic institutions. 



My opinion is clearly this, that the 

 very best means of recovery are only at- 

 tainable in liospitals properly instituted 

 solely for the j)urposcs of cure ; and into 

 which none should be admitted that 

 were not tliougiit curable, and none kept 

 after beinopronouBccd incurable. 



It is not sufiicient to convince me, 

 were it proved, that, in asylums under 

 the prevailing system, tlie best means of 

 recovery may be practised : it is quite 

 enough for my purpose to be assiucd. as 

 I am, that the best means never will be 

 practised in these institutions ; and, in 

 new public establishments, where a pub- 

 lic purse may be used, tliere is no neces- 

 sity for uniting the keeping those known 

 to be incurable, and the attempt to cure. 



The best means of recovery require the 

 individual attention of those who under- 

 take it: it includes, and indeed secures, 

 the best comforts of the patients; but it 

 must be a life of active exertion, and of 

 varied efforts : the mere keeping of incu- 

 lablcs may be a piece of still life, in 

 vhich day may succeed day — week, 

 ■week — and year, year — in one unvaiicd 

 round of placid existence. 



Tljose argmuents that T liave ad- 

 vanced, in some former jMagazines, up- 

 on this interesting topic, remain entirely 

 uurnswered; and, iu an appeal to the 

 stiiiemcnt of facts, the advocates for the 

 present system have evesy advantage 

 they can wish, by a comparison of 

 ■what I know may be done with wiiat 

 lias been dene at 'the Retreat; for none 

 of the public institutions, adhering to the 

 same system, can, I think, pretend to vie 

 with it in the practice of that system. 



I have repe-citediy said, both iu public 

 and private, that the chance of ultimate 

 recovery for patients at the Retreat 

 stands very fair; but, in a space of time 

 out of all measure of necessity. It aj)- 

 jiears that tlie time taken for the cure is, 

 on an average of all the cases recovered 

 at the Retreat, upwards of two years; 

 and the average of the recent cases, se- 

 lected from the others, upwards of 

 *-(<rbtecn mouths. 1 caniiot but consi- 

 tler seven or eight moatbsfor tlic former, 



catment of Insanity. [ocpt. 1, 



and four, or at most five, months for die 

 latter, as fully sufficient for the average 

 time of cure : and what a prodigious dif- 

 ference it must make in the economy of 

 domestic life, to lose one of its members 

 for eighteen months, when only four were 

 necessary. I know a man, who has now 

 been quite well for four years, that has 

 been six times afflicted with Ujadness, in 

 difierciit jjeriods of his life : from the 

 estimate of time necessary for recovery 

 at the K<'ireat, nine years might have 

 been deiltielod from a life of industry 

 and usefuliicss to his family; but tho 

 whole of these paroxysms have not caused 

 at most more than eighteen months : 

 facts are stubborn things; and, whatever 

 may be coissideicd as defective at the 

 Retreat sliould, I think, be charged 

 upon the system, and not upon the prac- 

 tice, as far fis that system goes: iu truth, 

 it is a system of careful keeping and cx- 

 ccllcrst moral treatment; but does not 

 admit of the most speedy and most ef- 

 fectual means of recover}. 



'I'he utmost stretch that my ambitious 

 views liave ever carried me as an earth- 

 ly wish, was to be resident master (with 

 proper medical assistants,) of an insti- 

 tution for the cure of insanity, agree- 

 able to my own plan, which should l>e 

 nearly a copy of that at Saragossa in 

 Spain, and to receive no remuneration 

 for my trouble but what arose from 1h« _ 

 cure. T. Bak.ewf.ll. | 



Sprivg Vftle, Stone, Slaffurdshire ; 

 Jn/jj 4, 181C. 



P. S. Willie writing tlic above, I was in- 

 ternipfcd by a si^lit novel as it was dis- 

 ticssinc, iKxTiicly, that of a number of men 

 drawing a wa:,'goi) loaded with coals. It 

 appears tli;it these men are a small part of 

 a iitiniber of colliers who have been quite 

 out of employ since IMarch, and they had 

 been dragging about these coals to excite 

 coniiiassion, and that they had procured a 

 litlle more than what it had taken to main- 

 tain them : their motto was—" fVe had 

 rather work than beg.'" 



To (lie Editor of the Mmithhj Magazine. 



siu, 

 "^/"OUH insertion of the following in 

 jBL your widely-circulated and valua- 

 ble publication, will render a great pub- 

 lic service, by preventing the unwary 

 from imposition, in being induced to be- 

 lieve that the stipulation of assessed or 

 liquidated damages, which is generally 

 supposed to imply the full penalty of th« 

 bond, has any real signification. 



Coi'RT OF King's Bench. 

 The Highgate Archway Company against 

 Mr. John Nash. 

 This was an action of ycry great im- 

 portance 



