INSANITY. 331 



science with the name of f remedial* There were surprise- 

 baths and roundabouts, and, in some asylums, periodical whip- 

 pings whippings at the new and full moon, to be precise ; 

 the idea prevailing that exacerbations of madness were at 

 such times to be specially apprehended. The idea of period- 

 icity had taken firm hold on the minds of physicians accus- 

 tomed to deal with the insane : it would be hard to say on 

 what evidence. In addition to periodic whippings there were 

 periodic bleedings, and other modes of depletion. Inquisitors' 

 torture-chamber barely exceeded in its means and appliances 

 of pain-infliction British madhouses asylums let us not call 

 them of olden time. 



The better to impart a verisimilitude, it may be as well 

 to assume the case of an imaginary patient, consigned to a 

 British madhouse even no longer ago than the beginning of 

 the present century ; and I would preface by observing that, 

 for each item of treatment to be announced, ample testimony 

 exists in the writings of Conolly. Take also Esquirol, Pinel, 

 Cousin, Thouret, Cabanis, and others of the glorious band of 

 philanthropists who have at length succeeded in bringing 

 French as well as British, and almost all, if not all, European 

 and American asylums for the insane to their present state 

 of amelioration. 



Assume the patient to have been conveyed to some asylum 

 under the restraint of a strait-waistcoat or manacles; pro- 

 bably of both. He has been consigned to the authorities; 

 his treatment is about to begin. That treatment might vary 

 with the practice of different establishments, but it would 

 most probably commence with the discipline of what was 

 called a ' surprise-bath.' 



The demented sufferer, being set down at one end of a 

 corridor, was either enticed or driven towards the other end ; 

 before reaching which the surprise awaited him. Midway 

 were placed some loose planks, or else a concealed trap-door ; 

 whichever it might be, the patient must step thereon. Under- 



