If we trouble ourselves to look back and study the treatment of insane persons in olden times, we cannot but be struck by the fact that our forefathers regarded insanity as a disease which needed active treatment, and it generally received such at their hands; and that, however much the weird and sudden outbursts of religious frenzies, sudden seizures, and mad impulses were regarded as evidences of demoniacal possession, or God-inspired action, the patients so affected, and rendered conspicuous by their conduct, received at the hands of their fellow-creatures treatment which, however curative in intention, must have tended rather to elimination than recovery, and in this respect differed little from that meted out to the physical illnesses, wounds, and accidents of the patients of bygone times.