1801.] 
ject of the prefent letter a year ago ; but I 
know not how many various avocatiors 
diverted me from it then; and my pur- 
pole might have been altogether loft, if 
the newpaper did not contifue to prefent 
additional facts tor me to build this pro- 
pofition upon, ** That many fhocking and 
fatal_accidents daily occur from. perfons 
being allowed to remain at large after 
they have exhibited fymptoms of infanity.” 
If this be juft, it will follow that fuch 
neglect amply merits our moft ferious ate > 
tention. ; 
Perhaps you may fuppofe I am to take 
up the fubjeét in a medical light; and 
fome of your readers may pals on-to the 
next article, as not having tafte for ** ’po- 
tecaries’ ftuff ;*’ but this is not my inten- 
tion, nor are difquifitions fecundum that 
ariem in my way. It is more within my 
humble province, as a fpeétator of men 
and things, to remark that the public have 
fallen into a grievous error in fuppofing 
that Bethlem, St. Luke’s, and a few pri- 
vate receptacles, in the vicinity of Lon- 
don, contain all the madmen within the 
bills of mortality. It is, no doubr, very 
flattering to think fo; and what we think 
in our own favour, we do not fcruple to 
fay: ‘© Vain man would be wiz, though 
man be born like a wild afs’s colt.” Yet 
it is an egregious error; and I think the 
celebrated Monteiquieu was of my opt- 
nion; for he long ago remarked, §* that, 
by building profefled madhoufes, men ta- 
citly infinuate, that all who are out of 
their fenfes are to be found only in thofe 
places..** It would be a fine compliment 
to the majority of manking, if it could be 
proved that neither Bethlenz gor St. Luke’s 
had any owt-paticnts. A wan would ra- 
ther be thought to affociate with the wife 
than with the foolith; but I ftrongly fuf- 
pect, that, until our public receptacles are 
enlarged, he will find this extremely difi- 
cult as a matter of choice; nay, if he 
{peak truth, he will allow that it is im- 
poflible to clafs himfelf among thofe who 
never fiand in need of a little temporary 
confinement, falutary confraint, and lower- 
ing diet. For my own part, while I la- 
ment my inability to make the feleCtion I 
could with, I am obliged to liften to rav- 
ings as well as reafonings. Iam not in- 
fenfible that I may occafionally have had 
a touch; for I do firmly believe (with fub- 
miflion to the faculty be it fpoken) that 
dome kinds of madne{s are inteétious and 
* T quote from a quoter, and fo cannot, 
like modern annotators, give you the cap. 
fed. col, or fin. 5 
Lunatics out of Hofpitals in 
dis 
endemic, if not epidemic. Ihave knowna 
whole village, not far from London, quite 
diffracted about a diipute which happened 
at an aflembly, when the villages adjoin- 
ing had nothing of the kind. In the city, 
a parith will often be out of its fenfes about 
the choice of a conftable or churchwarden ; 
and, not many years ago, all the inhabi- 
tants of the ward in which I live, had 
their heads turned about a commion fewer, 
But thefe are partial frenzies: let us ad- 
vert to the public at large. 
It has always appeared to me to be a 
very inconfiftent thing, that, while we are 
eager'to catch the firft fymptoms of a bo- 
dily diforder, and apply for the beft ads 
vice, we fhould be fo negligent as to let 
mental diforders take their own courfe, 
and never become fenfible of the abfurdity 
of fauch negleét until fome accident awaken, 
us; and even then, all the atonement we 
make, is.a wife recollection, an ex poft 
jaéo enumeration of the remedies that 
cught to have been adminiftered, and a 
thoufand or two of tender pities that they 
were not adminiftered fooner; nay, per- 
haps, in the infolence of compaffion, we 
go a little farther, and affert our having 
forefeen al] that has happened, as if fore- 
fight, and the means of prevention, ought 
not to be infeparalsle companions. Of all _ 
prophets, there are none fo eminent ag 
tsofe who foretel things that have hap- 
pened, and whofe wifdom, like a will and 
teftament, is never difclofed until the party 
is dead. But furely, Mr. Editor, fome 
penalty ought to be attached to fuch fof 
ovit fagacity. We have a fevere law a- 
gainft the concealment of treafonable plots, 
although we fhould not be concerned with 
them; and I verily think that 2i/prifion of 
madnefs ought to be punithed with equal 
rigour. Why fhould it be thought un- 
warrantable and inhuman to allow a man 
to go out of doors with the fymptems of 
fever or inflammation upon him, and no 
crime at all to permit the fame man to 
mix in fociety, with every appearance of a 
defeétive underftanding? What I contend 
for, therefore, is, that we fhould carefully 
watch, the firft fymptoms of lunacy, that 
we may prevent the fatal confequences of 
it to the party or his friends. Venienti oc- 
curyite morbo may be too trite to be re-, 
peated; but I hope it is too juft to be de- 
fpifed: and I really believe the reafon why 
lefs attention is paid to it than it deferves, 
is becaufe we have narrowed the bounds 
and limits of lunacy. We have confined _ 
its fpecics to a few enumerated in medical 
writings, and this, probably, out of com- 
pliment to the buildings above-mentioned, 
Ddz which 
