the plan was carefully pursued, abnormal symptoms gradually disappeared, and after two or three months the young man regained his composure, and returned to his home, and has since continued to live with his family and work for a living. It was simply an instance of overtasking the bodily strength by lông and unintermitted labor.

3. A gentleman of intelligence, who had many friends, was separated from his wife and resided at a distance from his family. He undertook to revisit former scenes, and was observed by his wife's relations. One of these, a physician, accosted him, invited him to his office, and an interview of a few minutes took place. Shortly afterwards, as he resumed his walk along the country road, a carriage drew up, and two sturdy men alighted, seized him, forced him into the carriage, and conveyed him to a hospital for the insane, with a certificate of commitment, signed by two physicians, whose respectability was vouched for by a magistrate, as the law required. This gentleman was not "examined" by the hospital physician. He was immured with the insane; and detained in entire conformity with the law, as it then existed. His friends were astonished at his sudden disappearance, but his home was a hotel, and he had no intimate companions there. After about a month's detention, he found an opportunity of stealthily communicating his position to his friends. They hurried to the hospital, and he was surrendered at once; the doctor taking occasion, then, to examine the case.

4. An instance of the commitment of a sane person to a hospital for the insane, occurred so recently in this neighborhood, that it will be fresh in the minds of all who care for these things.

A man in the respectable walks of life, but who was not an agreeable member of his family, received unexpectedly a formal visit from the family physician. Shortly after this interview, he was unceremoniously carried off to an asylum. for the insane, on a certificate signed by his doctor and a medical friend. He happily had a son, however, who missed his father, sought him out, and delivered him from durance. The two physicians who committed him to this undeserved incarceration, were called to account for their act,―an act worse than a felony; but the judge found no legal cause for punishment, and discharged the doctors.

5. A person of humble origin, but of considerable means, and a partner in business with a brother, found himself, without premonition, in the hands of a "committee" appointed by the court to take charge of his person and his property. He was hurried to a distant city and placed in a "retreat" for the insane. He had friends, but none knew where he was; and many months dragged on before any ray of hope illumined. his prospects. At length he induced his guardian to remove. him to a hospital near his old home, as it was supposed his case had ceased to receive attention. But he found opportunity to make known his whereabouts, and soon a writ of habeas corpus brought him before the court.

The court appointed a master on his case. Many friends, and several physicians and lawyers, saw him before the examination of witnesses, of whom a score or more testified to his sanity at the time of his immurement and at the present time. The medical superintendent's testimony was trivial to absurdity, the two main points being that he walked constantly through the corridors and talked continually of himself. The master reported to the court that he had never heard a clearer statement of a case than the plaintiff made: that he was remarkable for his sound intelligence, etc.,—and the court discharged him. It took nine months to go through this ordeal and obtain his invaded liberty-most unrighteously invaded.

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These cases are within the personal knowledge of the writer, and others might be cited of equal or even greater injustice.

Instances of neglect, even of barbarity which led to death, are known to all, familiar with the treatment of the insane, who are sometimes furnished with unfeeling attendants, hired at cheap rates, which only the most unsuitable would accept. I have before me a score of cases occurring within a few years, taken by my direction, from the dockets of our own courts and those of New York, which furnish examples of such sad experiences as I have mentioned. They are cases which have been carefully investigated by court and jury, sometimes consisting of as many as fifteen selected men; the institutions being defended by the ablest counsel.

There is no sensational motive in this record of the facts which have occurred in the institutions for this class. They

may not have occurred in all, but a liability to them exists everywhere from the system generally in force; which, by its exclusiveness, separates the public from all interposition in behalf of these wards of the state, except by confronting difficulties, delays and discouragements which few are willing to encounter. And thus, the hardships which menace all who are disposed to befriend the injured, the entire ignoring of all testimony from the patients themselves, the majority of whom are quite reliable in the statement of a matter of fact, the inexorable demand of the hospital officials for the sole consideration of all questions relating to the condition of their helpless patients, which has been most unwisely conceded by communities, too willing to be relieved of expense and troublesome responsibility; these are the sources and occasions of the peculiar and manifold misfortunes of the insane-misfortunes which are not suffered by any other class of the dependents of the State, and which would not be suffered by this most interesting and afflicted class, if the barriers, which I have suggested, were removed.

Perhaps the sentiment of the public, which I have mentioned, has prevented others from making so distinct a relation of the unhappy condition of the insane, as I have endeavored to indicate: the public mind not being well prepared to believe it. Perhaps the public are misled by partial knowledge, or knowledge only of some select retreat for well-to-do boarders. There have been, however, of late years, in this and other States, some revelations of the wrongs and the exposure to wrongs which they suffer. These have been developed in the efforts to effect an amelioration by judicious, conservative legal enactments, which should give full consideration to the officials of the institutions, and, at the same time, adequately protect the rights, which justice and humanity demand for their inmates. These patients have been entrusted to those officials for that care and treatment which would best relieve them of suffering, and so, best lead to the improvement or restoration of their health. The hospital is established for the patients and not for the officials, professional or lay.

The good influence of such legislation has been manifest in several States. The officers of the hospitals at first uniformly opposed it. Yet it has happened, that, not only have their patients been greatly relieved, and improper admissions hin

dered, but the good results have given satisfaction to these officials themselves. They feel protected against an unjust public reproach and indignation, while the protective legislation exists, and is carefully administered by the authority to which such duty has been confided.

The present publication is of a peculiar character. It is intended to have the influence of securing legislation which shall express the public will in reference to the consideration and treatment of the whole subject of insanity, in the interest not only of the insane themselves, but also of the public.

Treatises on the subject, demanding reforms based upon substantial grounds, are issued from time to time, and have a certain influence for good. But it is largely of an ephemeral character-too dilatory in its effects to be relied upon, unless after long periods of injustice or suffering.

This volume presents the facts and materials for a "comparative anatomy" of almost all civilized legislation on this subject. Instead of a volume of reasonings and appeals it lays before the community and throws in the way of our legislators a complete collection of the legislation of all our States and Territories, and of the most important legislation of England and other foreign countries in regard to the care of the insane; in the hope that every State will be stimulated to see to it, without delay, that its laws on this subject are as good as the best. Why should they not be? Every State owes it to its reputation not to be behind in this matter.. The manner in which the insane are treated in any country is an index of its stage of civilization. Consider when and where the aged, the sick, and the infirm were left to die, and the destitute to starve, and when and where the insane were chained in filthy dens, fed like wild beasts in a cage, and left to perish uncared for and alone. The legislation on this subject, which is now, in some shape, almost universal in civilized countries, attests the acknowledged need of such laws; and the most defective, as well as the more perfect legislation may alike read us an instructive lesson. As all must seek to have the best laws in this case, and none can afford to be delinquent, may not much good be expected from spreading before all, in one comparative view, the whole legislation now extant on the care and treatment of the insane?

Of those who are afflicted with this malady there are various classes, and there are various kinds and degrees of the malady itself, so that a great variety of legislative and administrative provisions is required for the care and treatment of all. There are the rich and the poor, the befriended and the friendless, the curable and the incurable, the quiet and the violent, the gentle monomaniac and the raving madman, the harmless and the homicidal, the simply deranged and the utterly demented, the innocent and the criminal or the quasi-criminal, the unquestionably insane and the doubtfully insane, and

so on.

I mention these various forms of the malady in order to show how large and complicated a matter legislation for the insane must necessarily be. I will, however, remark specially upon two or three classes only, having treated the subject at length elsewhere.

As for the insane who have independent means of support, or relations and friends that are able to furnish them, the State is not called upon to provide for the expense of their care and treatment. But even in their case laws may be needed for protection against the ignorance, the negligence, or the ill-will of their relations or pretended friends, to supervise their treatment, whether at home or in private institutions, and to secure any against being consigned to such institutions on an unfounded charge of insanity. To such the State may also well give free access to its own asylums or hospitals, being indemnified for their expenses, so that they may have the best care and treatment that medical science can afford. But, in that case, special care should be taken to provide that their presence should not crowd out any of the poor and friendless, or withdraw from these last, any portion of the kind and faithful attendance and treatment for which the state established and supports those institutions. There is danger in such circumstances that superintendents and physicians and nurses and servants should become disproportionately absorbed in those who have wealth and culture and social position and friends to recommend them, and to flatter the pride and reward the kindness of those who care for them.

It is the poor and friendless insane that are properly the wards of the State; and the State is required by every principle of common humanity, by a regard for its own reputation