On the Non-Restraint System,

Extract

In a recent review of the answers of the medical officers of asylums, published in the Eighth Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, it is objected that “many of the gentlemen who have forwarded replies to the Commissioners, and who have expressed an unqualified opinion in favor of non-restraint are men of but limited experience, having but for a short time been practically engaged in the treatment of the insane Again, a few of the medical men who answered the circular of the Commissioners, are in the habit of admitting into these houses a limited number of ‘nervous invalids,’ a quiet class of patients, not at all likely to require the application of mechanical restraint in their treatment. The evidence of these gentlemen is not, therefore, of much value quoad the question at issue.'’