I.—“I believe,” says Professor Tyndall, “that all the great thinkers who have studied the subject are ready to admit the following hypothesis, that every conscious act, whether in the domain of the senses, of thought, or of emotion, corresponds to a certain definite molecular state of the brain; that this relation of the physical to consciousness invariably exists, so that, given the state of the brain, we may deduce from it the corresponding thought or feeling; or given the thought or feeling, we may deduce from it the state of the brain. But how to make this deduction ? At bottom it is not a case of logical deduction; it is, in fact, a case of empirical association. It may be replied that very many of the deductions of science have this empirical character; such is that by which it is affirmed that an electric current circulating in a given direction will make the magnetic needle deviate in a definite direction. But the two cases differ in this, that if the influence of the current upon the needle cannot be shown, it can at least be imagined, and that we have no doubt whatever that ultimately the problem will be mechanically resolved, while we cannot even picture to ourselves the passage from the physical state of the brain to the corresponding facts of feeling. Let it be admitted that a definite thought corresponds simultaneously to a definite molecular action in the brain. Well, we do not possess the intellectual organ, we have not even the rudiment apparently of the organ, which would enable us to pass by reasoning from one phenomenon to the other. They are produced together, but we know not why. If our intelligence and our senses were perfect enough, vigorous enough, enlightened enough to enable us to see and to feel the actual molecules of the brain; if we could trace all the movements, the groupings, the electric discharges, if they exist, of these molecules; if we knew perfectly the molecular states which correspond to this or that state of thought or of feeling, we should be still as far as ever from the solution of the problem: what is the connection between this physical state and the facts of consciousness? The abyss which exists between these two classes of phenomena will be always intellectually impassable. Let us admit that the feeling of love, for instance, corresponds to a spiral movement of the molecules of the brain to the right, and the feeling of hate to a spiral movement to the left, we should know that when we love, a movement is produced in one direction, and that when we hate, a movement is produced in another direction; but the why would remain still unanswered.”∗

The aim of this paper will be to endeavour to show that neighbours of public asylums for the insane—occasionally using the term neighbours with some latitude—may, under certain circumstances, contribute to the well-being of selected patients, by services of various kinds; moreover, that not only residents in the vicinity, but also friends at a distance, may have a share in alleviating the affliction, perhaps even of promoting the convalescence, of inmates of these hospitals. Among 65,000 persons approximately computed as the number of patients in asylums and other institutions, there are many who are absolutely friendless and unvisited. Some come from distant counties, or even from foreign countries, beyond the range of practicable visits; others have outlived their relatives and friends; or these have, in course of time, discontinued their intercourse; others, again, saddest case of all, are perhaps deliberately deserted, purposely shunned, from selfish apprehension lest responsibility of maintenance or of assistance should be incurred, or from reluctance that their acquaintanceship with an inmate of a lunatic asylum should become known. So, from one cause or another, there are not a few patients who become, abruptly or gradually, cut off from communication with the outside world, practically forgotten as “dead men out of mind.” Yet, in many of these, there must surely exist yearnings after sympathy and that disinterested friendship which, “all for love and nothing for reward,” would take a personal interest in themselves.

In a paper on “The Physiology of Mind in the Lower Animals,” in the Journal of Mental Science for April, 1871 (p. 79), I endeavoured to prove that other animals than man possess the same kind of moral and intellectual endowments and apply them to the same practical purposes that he does. The object of the present paper is to show that Mind in the lower animals, or certain of them, is liable to be affected by the same causes of disturbance—is subject to the same forms of defect or disorder—as in man.

Six years ago I endeavoured to show, in a paper read before a quarterly meeting of the Medico-Psychological Association,∗ that there were not sufficient reasons to warrant the popular opinion, shared by some who had done more than accept a common notion without inquiry, that insanity was steadily increasing upon us year by year in this country; that, in fact, the undoubted great and rapid increase in the registered insane population of England was in the main to be attributed to other causes than an actual steady increase in the production of insanity. As the result of the enquiries, it seemed very uncertain whether we manufactured more madness now than formerly, but very certain that we take more care of, and know a great deal more about, the madness which we do manufacture.

I.—It is well known that the very different death-rates obtaining in different asylums depend much more on the different classes of patients they contain, than on any differences in the hygiene, or other conditions of the asylums themselves. Very little has, however, been done to obtain any accurate measure of the mortality rates that obtain amongst different classes of patients. The statistical tables of this association, which have now been used in the annual reports of asylums for a dozen years, contain much material that may be used for elucidating the matter. It is somewhat surprising that the valuable statistics contained in these tables have not been made use of to any extent either for this or any other purpose; the impediment, probably, is the considerable labour involved in any extensive analysis of their numerous data.

The good order, quietness, and contentment of a modern asylum for the insane are apt to appear to outsiders mere matters of course. Alike at employment, exercise, and recreation, the patients behave so well that it seems as if they could never do otherwise, and the occurrence of any casualty among them is apt to excite surprise and dissatisfaction, as if it could only have resulted from mismanagement or carelessness.

[This interesting account of the treatment of the insane in Malta was written by F. V. Inglott, C M G., the Comptroller of Charitable Institutions in the Island, and sent by him to the late Sir James Clark, Bart. It has been furnished to the Journal by Dr. Arthur Mitchell, Commissioner in Lunacy for Scotland. It bears date 3rd November, 1867. A few verbal changes have been made in passing it through the press, and some unimportant passages have been omitted.—Ed.]