the place and time of religious worship. The insane feel the force of this habit equally strong; they frown upon those who work or trifle upon the Sabbath, and are particularly indignant to those who are disposed to disturb the quiet of our religious assemblies. There is a feeling of pride extending over our whole household in the quiet and orderly observance of the Sabbath in the Hospital. The good counsels of the chaplain are treasured up and often repeated in the week time, as motives of self-control to themselves and as admonitions to others. "When patients have recovered, and are about to return to their friends, they often speak of their enjoyment of chapel exercises, express their regret at leaving those interesting services, and implore the blessing of Heaven upon future ministrations.

"An excellent woman, who recovered from dreadful melancholy at the Hospital, a year or two since, writes in substance thus, after inquiring after the general welfare of the family: How do you get along in your beautiful little chapel ? I shall ever feel deeply interested in your religious meetings, as I feel sensible that one of the first rays of light that entered into my benighted mind was in the solemn worship of that house.''

Dr. Butler, of the Boston Lunatic Hospital, says,

"Religious instruction is another influence to which we have looked for beneficial results. Considering our immediate household, and our patients, as one great family, and recognizing the family as a divine institution, your superintendent has deemed it his duty to gather as many as practicable together for family worship, at an early hour in the evening The usual regular services of the Sabbath have been supplied to us every Sunday afternoon, with few exceptions. For this inestimable privilege, we have been indebted to the gratuitous labors of those of our clerical friends, whose hearts have been warmed towards those of their fellow-beings who are sitting in darkness. There is no more fitting place in which to express to the Rev. Messrs. Cleveland, Crowell, Abbott, Washburn, and other gentlemen who have officiated for us, our grateful sense of that benevolence, which has led them to preach to our family the soothing precepts of Him who said to the tempest, 'Peace, be still!' The average attendance of our patients upon these services is over 40, and it is rare that they exhibit any deviation from good order and propriety. Though it is the first time for years that many of our inmates have been thus recognized as members of the human family, their fixed attention and serious deportment is a pleasant illustration of the adaptation of the gospel to all sorts and conditions of men. The utility of these influences should be undoubted. No one can look upon our household, assembled for the instruction of the Sabbath, or for the familiar worship of the evening, and see them there, as one family, rise up silently and reverently, to pray to our Father in heaven, without realizing that some feel the solemnity of the act, without being convinced that a chord may there be struck, whose ultimate vibration may awaken some recollection of early life, and bring back upon the excited and bewildered mind some calm and solemn influences, and give him that one moment of self-control, in which the first link in the chain of diseased associations may be broken."

Dr. Brigham, of the Connecticut Retreat, says,

"The importance of religious instruction, as part of the system of moral treatment of the insane, has not been overlooked. Those of the patients who are capable of joining in religious services, assemble every evening, when the chaplain reads a portion of the sacred Scriptures, and conducts the devotions of the family. On Sunday, he preaches to the assembled household, and often, during the week, presents the truths of Christianity, and its consolations, to those who are care-worn, anxious, and dejected. Much good has resulted from this practice, and great credit is due to the gentleman who has, with uncommon discretion and sound judgment, performed this sacred duty." Dr. White, of the Private Asylum, Hudson, N. Y., says, "The quiet patients continue to enjoy the beneficial effects of family worship, as heretofore."

Dr. Earle, of the Frankford, Penn., Asylum, says,

"There are but four institutions in this country in which there is not some religious devotional exercise; and wherever this duty has been observed, it has been accompanied by beneficial results.”

Those patients whose condition will admit of it, in the institution under his own immediate care, assemble on Sabbath afternoons to hear a portion of the Scriptures. Some of them attend meeting in the village of Frankford.

Dr. Earle also says, divine worship on the Sabbath has been introduced into the Maryland Asylum with good effect.

Dr. Awl, of the Ohio Asylum, says,

"Through the blessing of Almighty God, we have been permitted to continue our regular family worship, every evening in the week, and the reading of a short sermon on the Lord's day, not only without interruption from the patients, who, to the number of 30 or 40, usually attend, but with the most happy influence and positive benefit to many of our patients, and the large family of officers, attendants, and assistants, connected with the institution. At first, it is true, we had some doubts concerning the necessity and propriety of daily religious exercises for the insane mind, and the difficulty of conducting the service appropriately appeared great; but we felt constrained to make the experiment, through a strong sense of duty; and the experience of two years has abundantly satisfied our mind upon the subject. In an institution of this kind, we have an extensive family to govern, as well as to provide for the daily wants of the insane; and merely as a moral obligation, the daily worship of God is of the first consequence to inspire confidence and respect, and to harmonize the feelings; but above all this, we are fully prepared to add our testimony to the importance and value of religious exercises with the insane as a special mean of grace, well calculated to bring light and wisdom to the mind, relief and peace to the heart and conscience. By many of the convalescing, it is estimated as a blessed privilege; and in respect to them there can be no doubt of its propriety. We have never seen any evil effects from the practice, with the most diseased and unsteady; and when we

find many of the positively deranged, who are anxious to accompany the rest, and spend half an hour in social worship, and not only conduct themselves with propriety and order, but sincerely thank us for the privilege, we are satisfied that, in many instances, the soul has been refreshed, though there may have been but an imperfect and beclouded view of a merciful Redeemer.

"When the bell rings for worship, they gather in from the different galleries, each several class accompanied by its proper attendant, and all are regularly seated, without strife or confusion, males on the right and females on the left of the superintendent's table; and there is the most respectful attention when the blessed Bible is opened, and the words of eternal life are read. There, amid the group upon the right, is one who has been a witness to many sorrows; upon the opposite side sparkle the wild eyes of a stronger mind in ruins; and directly in front is the pale form of the female homicide, who with one awful stroke severed the head from the body of her sleeping husband! — all ready and willing to unite in the praise of God, and, in a greater or less degree, enjoy the spiritual blessings of the gospel of righteousness and peace.' "In the wreck of mind and loss of reason, perhaps the very last ideas which remain will be something of the reverence and respect which are due to the Maker of our frame; and it is not at all uncommon to see the aged and demented Christian reverently bend the knee, when years of darkness, to all human appearance, have shut out all correct knowledge of earth and heaven."

RESTRAINTS.

Dr. Butler, of the Boston Asylum, says,

"We seek to avoid personal restraint as far as practicable, and apply it, when necessary, with as much gentleness and as little irritation as possible. The means of restraint that we use are, confinement to rooms in the hall with guarded windows, or the application of straps, (leather wristbands, fastened by rings to a belt, passing around the body and secured behind,) with, or, more generally, without, the mittens. These produce no pain, and effectually prevent violence to themselves, to others, or to the building. We have one strong chain, which is rarely used."

Dr. Bell, of the McLean Asylum, says,

"An absence, in the early part of the year, of about four months, in search of health, under permission of your board, a permission granted in a manner, and accompanied with circumstances, calling for his grateful acknowledgments, gave your superintendent some opportunity to observe and compare, and, if occasion had offered, to improve, by the long-established and extensive insane institutions of the Old World. While surprised and gratified at the extent and magnificence of many of these establishments, there seemed little or nothing in architectural arrangements, or in modes of moral or medical treatment, of value, which has not long since been transplanted to, or discovered in, the American institutions. The only noticeable pe

culiarity worth communicating would seem to be, the experiment commenced recently in some of the British hospitals, of an entire disuse, as they consider it, of corporeal restraints. At the Lincoln Lunatic Asylum, it is said in the Report of the Middlesex Asylum at Hanwell for 1839, that the last personal restraint occurred in January, 1837; and at the last-mentioned institution, restraining apparatus has been thrown aside since the latter part of September, 1839. I consider one of the greatest pleasures of my visit to Europe to have been the privilege of spending the greater portion of a day at Hanwell, and the opportunity of conversing freely on this as well as other subjects relating to the insane, with Dr. Conolly, the head of this extensive establishment, whose reputation, as a medical philosopher and writer on mental alienation, is no less recognized on this side the Atlantic than at home, and whose urbanity and attention to a stranger, with no claims beyond a community of interests and pursuit, I cannot but gratefully recall. As any thing like improvement in the present system, introduced elsewhere, must soon attract attention here, and as the idea of absolutely discarding personal restraint has something so attractive in its very mention, I have been induced to bestow considerable reflection upon the expediency of adopting such a universal rule at this Asylum. Thus far, at these two great institutions referred to, - the former with about 150, and the latter with over 800 patients, - the experiment has been found so successful as to be persevered in; whether adopted beyond these hospitals, or not, I have no means of ascertaining. It is certain, however, that the attempt has been much noticed and applauded in England, and of course will soon have its praises transferred to every portion of our land.

"As regards Great Britain, the encomiums bestowed upon this innovation may be all deserved. In a country where, at this moment, a chain to each bed, of at least one long dormitory, may be seen at the extensive metropolitan Hospital of St. Luke, such a discovery, as puts an end to such barbarity, may well excite applause; or at the Lincoln Asylum, where the number of patients under restraint were 39, of an entire number of 72, in 1830; 54 of 92, in 1831; 40 of 70, in 1832; 55 of 81, in 1833; 44 of 87, in 1834, and so on, the change must be most gratifying to every humane heart.

"Dr. Conolly, in The Fifty-first Report of the Visiting Justices of the County Lunatic Asylum at Hanwell,' for the year 1839, (page 47,) remarks as follows:-'For patients who take off or destroy their clothes, strong dresses are provided, secured round the waist by a leathern belt, fastened by a small lock. For some, who destroy the collar and cuffs of their dresses with their teeth, a leathern binding to those parts of the dress is found convenient. Varied contrivances are adopted with variable results, for keeping clothing on those who would otherwise expose themselves to cold at night; and warm boots fastened round the ankles by a small lock instead of a button or buckle, are sometimes the means of protecting the feet of those who will not lie down. Those who are in the habit of striking suddenly, tearing the bed-clothes, &c., sometimes wear a dress of which the sleeves terminate in a stuffed glove, without a division for the thumb and fingers. But no form of strait waistcoat, no hand-straps, no leg

locks, nor any contrivance confining the trunk or limbs, or any of the muscles, is now in use. The coercion-chairs, about forty in number, have been altogether removed from the wards; no chair of this kind has been used for the purpose of restraint since the middle of August.' "Any gentleman, familiar with the management of this, or, I believe, any other of the New England institutions, from their origin, will at once declare, if this is all that is meant by an absolute disuse of restraining means, if the application of leathern mittens, waiststraps, varied contrivances for keeping on clothing, boots with locks, &c., are considered so mild and trifling measures, as not to be included under the phrase of personal restraint, that this innovation, or experiment, or improvement, can never be introduced here, for the best of all reasons, that the application of the severe measures reported as discarded at Hanwell, never was heard of in our Asylums, and but a few even of the measures deemed so insignificant as to form no exception, have ever been found necessary here. If this is all that is intended in the new system, our experience for years may encourage them to go on fearlessly.

"An amount of restraint less than is intimated in these exceptions, has long proved adequate in this institution: the necessity, for example, of restraining apparatus for keeping the patient covered at night, is here obviated by the admission of heated air to the sleeping apartment, when necessary. For some years, the average number of patients under the restraint of leathern mittens, has not exceeded one per cent.; and often week after week elapses without even a single instance. I have no doubt that this rare use might with safety be carried to a still greater extent to that of absolute interdiction; but how far it may be dispensed with, or how far the best good of the sufferer demands its application, is a question of judgment to be decided in view of all the circumstances of each case. An important rule is, that no restraint, even of the slightest kind, should ever be applied or removed except under the direction of an officer. This rule has always been incorporated in our code of domestic regulations. But to lay down the broad, absolute rule of disusing all the mild forms of restraint, would not comport with the best good of an institution. I do not doubt that, with the number of active and trusty assistants we now have, it might be practicable to pursue such a system, perhaps without any results of consequence to be regretted. Yet its adoption would be cutting off the power of employing a remedial means, often of great value to the patient. A portion of the feeling in England as to restraining measures, is based on a delusion. Which is the greater restraint, to shut up a patient disposed to strike upon any sudden impulse, in his solitary dormitory, having its light admitted just below the ceiling, or to place large leathern mittens on his hands, and permit him to go into a large court-yard and to walk up and down in the open air? The seclusion within a room is not considered personal restraint, in the reports referred to.

"Or, which is least oppressive, to a patient disposed to certain troublesome habits, as, abrading the skin of the face by perpetual picking, or plucking out the hair root after root, habits become from neglect so inveterate and involuntary, that even while the