DUNEDIN HOSPITAL. To the Editor of the Daily OTAGO TIMES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 117, 1 April 1862, Page 3

DUNEDIN HOSPITAL. To the Editor of the Daily OTAGO TIMES.

Sir, —In a paragraph in j-our impression of Friday, allusion is made to the mode of treating the lunatic patients in the Duncdin Hospital, and some strictures which, it appears, had previously been made upon the subject in your columns, are timed down by the remark, that in the matter, of manacling patients "the course now adopted is the most judicious and expedient." Such may be the opinion of the medical superintendent of the institution'in question, and of the lion-professional persons to whose care, under him, the patients are entrusted ; but I undertake to say, that in'no hospital in a civilized country—certainly in none in the United Kingdom—will the treatment permitted in the Dunedin Hospital be found in use at the present day. Ido not base my opinion on "the remarks of your reporter, but upon what I have seen in the Hospital and have frequently heard regarding it; and I know that in the treatment' of some of the lunatic patients, there is a course adopted which is not only injudicious and inexpedient, but which would net be _ tolerated for a single day by any medical man, experienced in the management of asylums, who has outlived the brutal system of what is now, thank God, a past age, or who is in any way acquaintod 'with the results of the mild system of treatment now universally adopted. The very mention of manacles in connection with lunatic treatment is now only made by the ignorant and uninitiated. Such a thing as a manacle, a chain, or a straight jacket, is vow as little known or thought of in any well-regulated establishment in Britain, as are the iron-boots or thumb screws of Covenanting days in our courts of justice. . When.,l say so, 1 am onjy stating—however ignorant Dr. Hulmc may be oftliofact—what every person acquarated'witu pathological treatment must be perfectly aware of, but I speak also from an extensive acquaintance with the mode of managing some of the very best institutions in the mother country. As an instance,, I had opportunities, professionally, of becoming intimately acquainted with the style of treatment adopted in one of the model institutions in Britain — Morningside Asylum, Edinburgh—and though that establishment contains about nine hundred patients, I never yet ssw in a single case such a thing as a manacle of the simplest kind, nor is such a contrivannce for a moment permitted in the most Violent case by the medical superintendent of the ■ house. I have seen hundreds of patients there in all stages of delirium, mania, melancholia, general paralysis, or other mental ills to.which flesh is heir, but never yet saw one of them in manacles, and any medical man having the"slightest knowledge of mental affections knows that the ust of such is not only often an aggravation of the ailment, but has in the days of the old' system frequently terminated in the patient's death. Persons violently m:-d may be held down by attendants ; tied or manacled never: and I'll be bound to say that in the grounds of few hospitals, save that of Dunedin, is to bo seen the spectacle of men going about in handcuffs. The ignorance—the bruta'ity— exhibited in the management of this department of the Hospital is one of the many-good reasons for'the speedy reformation of the institution, and hopefully anticipating a consummation so devoutly to be wished for, , I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, - Htjmanitas.

Port Chalmers, March 29