OUR LUNACY SYSTEMS.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 137, 18 March 1872, Page 3

OUR LUNACY SYSTEMS.

Ale asylums, tiie British Medical Journal thinks, are conducted on too exclusive principle?. This, however, is mtu.li less true of the smaller and most recent ones. A strong liberal feeling is daily gaining ground among asylum-physicians against this monasticism. They are endeavoring, as far as public opinion will allow H ein, and often in opposition to it, to raise their institutions to the level of country hospitals. Tiie public is invited to visit and inspect ; it is asked to take part in the amusing- of the patients; high surrounding walls, both moral and physical, are being knocked down, and the working is being made known to the world. Much lias been said of late derogatory to tlm professional clia-actor of asylum-phy-sicians. It must he remembered that they have to fight against these—and, furthermore, that they have fought successfully in the cause of reform. The mind of the alienistic physician is, like that of tiie world in general, advancing in liberality. None knows so well at lie does the evils under which ho works, and none strive more earnestly to modify or abolish it. In a future article, wc propose to show how this movement may be accelerated by a more thorough general education of the medical staff of asvlutns.