Lunacy versus liberty : a letter to the Lord Chancellor, on the defective state of the law, as regards insane persons, and private asylums for their reception : with remarks, original and select, including the author's own case, and others / by William Griggs.

  • Griggs, William, late Patient at Kensington House.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lunacy versus liberty : a letter to the Lord Chancellor, on the defective state of the law, as regards insane persons, and private asylums for their reception : with remarks, original and select, including the author's own case, and others / by William Griggs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    for there is an extensive library in the house, which the patients have'the use of, if their cases admit of it, with newspapers and periodicals: thus the time is past till dinner hour, at one, which al- ways consists of some substantial joint, varied every day, with soup or pudding. Our aristocratic pride would not suffer a knife in our presence : we give our royal order, to bring our meat in ready cut, with silver fork and spoon. We were not supplied with a small plate-full, but with one that will keep off the Cholera. Persons afflicted with this quack dis- order, would soon be cured by dining with Finch's patients for a month, and compelled to eat the same allowance. I have known even the good lady of the house send a servant in livery into our parlour, with her compliments, and beg we would accept a little present after dinner. Pretty fair this for a mad house! Dinner over, books again, or a walk in the gar- den, which I should think two hundred yards long. I was allowed a pipe, and derived a very great be- nefit from the use of it. At five, in to tea, which was precisely the same as breakfast; after which, no more to eat or drink : to bed at eight. Now be it remembered, medicine is not required in this dis- order. A chapel is attached to the house, and a clergyman lectures every Sunday evening, if the key is to be found. The novelty of preaching a sermon to mad people not a little delighted me; and our parson cut away at Irving in fine style I assure you. The general character of this disease, after long confinement, appears to be that of an oppressive kind of stupor. The spirits are more depressed in some persons than others; some will get in this state in a few months, while others will be years; but as far as I could perceive, all do arrive at that state. Age makes no difference, to illustrate which, I will give an account of some of my companions. One was a French Abbe, who, but a short period be-