Observations on the admission of medical pupils to the wards of Bethlem Hospital, for the purpose of studying mental diseases / by John Webster.

Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the admission of medical pupils to the wards of Bethlem Hospital, for the purpose of studying mental diseases / by John Webster. 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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    three-fourths had been engaged in some kind of employment, which materially contributed to their recovery. Notwithstanding the many capabilities for conveying instruction to pupils on mental diseases which exist at Bicetre, as well from the numerous patients, as from the various forms of mania constantly under observation, to say nothing of the celebrity of the different attending physicians, no lectures are at present delivered in that establishment, although the Inspector General, M. Ferrus, when one of the medical officers, gave lectures and clinical instruction to students for several years consecutively, and often to a large class; indeed, these lectures were so much appreciated, that at the last course which that physician delivered, 154 pupils were inscribed ; and, notwithstanding the course was delivered at Bicetre, in spite of the distance from Faris, the audience were very regular in their atten- dance. During these lectures, an insane patient was frequently introduced into the class room, in order to illustrate to the pupiis the variety of mania which might be then under investigation. On such occasions, the lunatic often described his own case to the auditors, or he answered the questions put by the professor, but the pupils were never allowed to interrogate the patient. The history of the case being finished, and the symptoms sufficiently explained, M. Ferrus would request a pupil to state, in the hearing of all present, his opinion of the patient’s malady. In questioning a student, M. Ferrus had other objects in view, besides the instruction of the former; for the professor had often observed, when a lunatic was plainly told that “ he was mad,” such a mode of examination so far from being pernicious to the patient, was often very beneficial; and I am glad to be able to say, on the au- thority of M. Ferrus himself, that he thought the circumstance of the lunatic being brought into contact with the audience often pro- duced good effects upon his intellect, whilst it acted as a moral agent in assisting the cure. The opinion pronounced by the student would sometimes produce this important result upon the patient, that it made him disbelieve in the reality of his particular delusions, or in- duced him to endeavour to restrain his extravagancies, whereby a decided advance was made in the remedial treatment; so that the introduction of an insane patient into a class room, for the purpose of illustration would appear to be not only not injurious, but even useful. Indeed, sometimes a patient would request as a lavour to be taken to the lecture and shown to the students; but if met by a refusal, he generally felt disappointed. From the frequent conversations which I had the good fortune to have with some of the most distinguished French physicians attached to insane asylums, I can state their unanimous opinion to be in favour of admitting pupils to the wards of all public lunatic hospitals; indeed, without having such opportunities, it is quite impossible for practitioners to learn how to treat patients labouring under so deplorable a malady as mania. From my own observation, I can add, that during the repeated visits I made to the 1