On the construction and management of hospitals for the insane : with a particular notice of the institution at Sieburg / by Maximilian Jacobi ; translated by John Kitching ; with introductory observations, &c. by Samuel Tuke.

Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the construction and management of hospitals for the insane : with a particular notice of the institution at Sieburg / by Maximilian Jacobi ; translated by John Kitching ; with introductory observations, &c. by Samuel Tuke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    INTKODUCTION. It is now several years since Dr. Jacobi left with me, after a very interesting visit, the work on the construction and manage- ment of hospitals for the Insane, of which the present volume is a translation. Being ignorant of the German language, I availed myself of the knowledge of my friend John Kitching, then a medical pupil at the Retreat, to become acquainted with many passages of the work : these specimens led me to wish to read other parts, and at length induced me to obtain a translation of the whole, with the view of presenting it to the English reader. Dr. Jacobi, by several works in that most important depart- ment of his profession to which he has devoted the energies of his mind, is well known in England, as well as on the continent of Europe, as a man of talents and attainments of no common order. Although in these works he has treated mainly of mental disorders, with relation to their physical causes and treatment, he has by no means overlooked those moral or psy- chological influences which so often form the remote causes of insanity, and which hold so important a place in its curative treatment. They who have taken right theoretical views of disordered mental affections, may be prepared to state generally, the provisions which should he made for their treatment in public or private establishments; but it is only those who have practically observed the circumstances of the insane, in estab- lishments provided for them, and who have corrected their theoretical inferences by the test of experience and comparative observation, who can supply that particular information which