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establishment, is superior to that of the Re- remain in the house, I find that three had treat; but whether the cure of the recent been for years distinguished by great pecases admitted into this establishment has culiarities; and though the disease might been prevented by their mixture, in the not have been so decidedly marked, for same establishment, with the confirmed more than twelve months, as to justify a class. Of the probability of this, your medical certificate for removal to a place readers shall judge for themselves from of confinement; yet these cases could not the following statement. be considered as recent, and were perhaps quite as hopeless as if a decided state of mania had continued for two years.

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Of the other seven uncured cases maining in the house, I have no observation to make, except that the disease, in five instances, had been of more than three months duration at the time of admission.

It appears from the tables published in. the year 1812, in the "Description of the Retreat," that there had been admitted, from the commencement of the institution in 1796, one hundred and forty-nine patients, of whom eighty-eight were of that confirmed class which T. Bakewell admits, under his treatment, to be rarely susceptible of cure. Of these, sixteen Of the four cases removed, in an imhave been discharged perfectly recovered, proved or convalescent state, one continand six others in a state so much impro- ued recovering, and, I have reason to ved as not to require further confinement. believe, is perfectly well; I do not know Of the sixty-one cases in which the that any of the remaining three are perdisease had not continued more than fectly recovered, but they had been ill twelve months previous to admission, it more than three months when they enappears that seven have died, ten remain tered the house, and, it is to be observed, in the house, four have been removed, that Bakewell, in the statement of his either convalescent, or in so improved a cures, only considers such as recent, in state as not to require confinement, and which the disease had not been of more forty have been discharged perfectly re- than three months duration at the time of covered. their coming under his care. This difference between the application of the term recent to cases of twelve-months, as at the Retreat, or of only three months standing, as at Spring Vale, materially affects the probability of cure.

It appears from this statement, that out of the sixty-one recent cases, twentyone have either died, been removed, or remain in the house in an uncured state; and it is highly deserving of enquiry, whether, under a different mode of treatment, this unhappy number might have been diminished. It may be seen in the tables above alluded to, that four out of the seven deaths took place within three months of admission; and I find, on enquiry, that three of these deceased patients were in a dying state at the time of admission, and the fourth had had two apoplectic fits previous to her coming into the house, and died of a third within three months of her admission. A fifth patient died within five months, and a sixth within eight months of admission, both apparently in a state of convalescence. The seventh case was that of a person sixty-nine years of age, when she was admitted; and who, after having been discharged in a very improved state, relapsed, and died in the house at the age of seventy-four.

Of the ten patients who are stated to

I have enquired what number of cases have been admitted into the Retreat which come under this latter definition of recent, and I find it to be thirty-six. Of this number four have died, three of whom, as before mentioned, were in such a state of bodily disease, at the time of admission, as to afford no hope of recovery; the fourth was the elderly patient before described. Of the remaining thirty-two cases, thirty have been discharged perfectly recovered, and two out of thirty-six remain uncured, to justify the assertion of Thomas Bakewell, that the separation of curable and incurable cases is essential to recovery; and that, at the Retreat, the cure, if not lost sight of, is a secondary object.

As the tables, from which the preceding statement is chiefly derived, were published in the year 1812, I will beg leave to add here the following short extract from the

last report of the Retreat, which is dated relapses which have taken place after pathe 29th of the 6th month, 1815:-" It tients have left the Retreat, induces me is worthy of remark, (say the Directors) as affording satisfactory evidence of the good management of the institution, and of the importance of early attention to cases of insanity, that, of the sixteen recent cases admitted in the last three years, fifteen have already been discharged recovered." During these three years the proportion of old to recent cases in the Retreat has been at least five of the former to one of the latter.

to think that these detentions have been salutary. It has, however, frequently happened that relapses have taken place during the detention, which have, in several instances, materially protracted the ultimate recovery, and the first is not noticed in the tables from which Thomas Bakewell has drawn his inferences. Indeed in some of the cases, where the patients appear to have been several years in recovering, they have been, during that time, more than once discharged recovered, and have returned to the house. In several of these cases only the last discharge is noticed in the tables published

I am aware that the preceding statements do not decide the question, whether curable and incurable patients may be best provided for in the same establishment; but I think they will sufficiently in the "Description of the Retreat." prove, that as many cures, in curable cases, have been made in an establishment where this mixture has taken place, as in any asylum, not excepting Spring Vale, with whose reports we are at present acquainted. And I trust it will also satisfy those magistrates who are forming asylums with the two objects before men tioned, that their plan is not necessarily calculated to increase the number of incurable lunatics.

My friend Bakewell will doubtless urge the difference in time which the patients who have recovered at the Retreat and Spring Vale have continued in their respective establishments; and it does appear from the published statements of each, that the process of cure has been much more rapid in the latter than the former asylum.

Their different circumstances will,however, in great measure explain this differ ence. The expence of maintenance at Spring Vale will naturally induce the friends of patients to remove them as early as they can; but this inducement does not exist at the Retreat, where a majority of the patients are supported at from four to eight shillings per week; and it happens that those who recover seldom remain less than three, often six or more, months in the house, after they are considered well. This is allowed by the committee, at the request of the friends of the patients, and with their consent, from the difficulty which very often arises in providing suitable situations for them on their recovery. The small number of

Perhaps a different mode might have been fairly adopted, which would, of course, have increased the proportion of recoveries, and diminished the time which they appear to have taken. I am, however, far from imagining that no improvements are to be made in the medical or moral treatment at the Retreat, or that it surpasses, in either of these respects, all other establishments. And, though it is desirable that the experience of this, and all similar institutions, should be fairly laid before the public, I should not have offered these observations and statements, if it had not been for the important inferences which Thos. Bakewell has attempted to draw from the proportion of cures which have occurred in the Retreat.

The chief argument in favour of distinct establishments for recent cases of insanity, seems to be, the probability of their claiming more particular attention than where they are united with those cases which afford no prospect of successful treatment.

Our own hospitals of Bethlem and St. Luke's are occupied chiefly by recent cases; and the plan of separation is, I believe, adopted in the French asylums: The success of these establishments in the cure of lunatics is not much in favour of their plan.

In favour of the union of old and recent cases in the same hospital, it is to be remembered that the former very often supply a most useful class of assistants, and the probability of recovery in old

cases is not so small as to consign them to that neglect which would probably prevail in asylums for what would be considered incurable patients.

I do not mean, however, to assert, that there are very material objections to the plan of separation proposed by Thos. Bakewell, but I will confidently say, that his main objection to the plan now generally adopted in lunatic hospitals, is either chimerical or unfounded, and that the proper classification of patients, according to their state of mind, not the duration of the disease; and such a limitation of the number of patients as to be well observed by the superintendant, are objects of much greater importance than the provision of distinct asylums for old and recent cases.

SAMUEL TUKE. York; 17th of 5th month, 1816.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

vatory at Woolwich is one built by myself, contiguous to my dwelling-house, on the common, which, it is presumed, although upon a small scale, is not exceeded, for the excellency of its instruments, its perfect convenience, and compactness, by any of the private ones mentioned in the list. And I crave permission here to dilate a little on its description.

The can

It is furnished with one of Mr. Troughton's best transit circles,+ supported by a large old cannon, having a thick cast iron circular cap, fastened to the face of the piece with strong screws, on which the instrument rests. non is sunk into the ground, as far as the trunnions, and firmly secured by powerfully ramming in the surrounding materials. In order that the circle might be lifted up with facility, for alternating the pivots, an adjustment at first absolutely necessary, and afterwards occasionally, a crane, for this purpose, with rackwork, is attached to the east side of the observUND INDER the article "Observatory," atory. The transit clock is of the best in Dr. Hutton's last edition of his construction, having one of Mr. TroughMathematical Dictionary, a compilation ton's improved compensating pendulums. of considerable worth and merit, I have The wires in the telescope of the circle noticed two mistakes, which I will beg are illuminated by a lamp fastened to leave to correct, through the medium of the cannon below, instead of, as is your very extensively circulated Maga- usual, to the end of the perforated axis, zine. The first is, where the doctor as- which improvement precludes the comserts that the Hon. Charles Greville had munication of heat to any part of the an observatory, on a great scale, at Mil- instrument. The modes of shewing ford. The fact was, that just as the buil- light to the clock and micrometers are ding, intended for an observatory, was most conveniently devised. Superaddnearly completed, the honourable gentle- ed to these might be named a variety of man died, and the instruments designed clocks, angular instruments, and reflectfor the observatory, after having lain at Milford, in packing cases unopened, for about a twelve-month, were sent to Mr. Troughton's, in Fleet-street, for sale.

ing and refracting telescopes, capable of high magnifying powers, which are occasionally applied to a substantial polar axis, and other stands, for readily viewing the heavenly bodies.

In pointing out the second mistake feelings of interest will manifest themIt is possible that Dr. H. might have selves. supposed, that the observatory, with the Among the private observatories of whole of the appendant instruments now the present day, Dr. H. adds an alphabet- briefly described, belonged to the Hon. ical list of the places where they are situ- Board of Ordnance, and that they were ate, with the names annexed of the astro- placed under my superintendance, as nomical amateurs to whom each belong. constituting a part of my duty at the Annexed to the word "Woolwich," how- academy; but the very reverse is the ever, he inserts Royal Mil. Acad. Now case, the whole being my property, the fact again is, that there is no observa- which, with truth it may be asserted, tory at this institution. The only obser

* Vide vol. xxxvi. of this Magazine, p. 100; or the number for Sept. 1813.

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+ One of the returned instruments from Milford, purposely made for the late Mr. Gavin

Lowe.

a source of the most rational amusement
and inexpressible gratification to me
during the intervals of professional en-
gagements.
L. EVANS.

Woolwich, May 6, 1816.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

W

HEN men

When men have served a certain time. in the navy, according to rank, situation, and trade, they should be free from the impress, agreeably to certain regulations, different situations, and tonnage of ships: making a difference between those who have entered, those who are impressed,. and those who have left their country, during the time of war, to evade their services in the navy.

Perhaps the following propositions will be found to contain the outlines of the object in view :--

are impressed, and more particularly when they enter, they should not be sent immediately on a foreign station, until they visit the port to which they belong, which might be done by permitting them to find a The East India trade, as now conproper substitute, or to give security to ducted, is a waste of men; instead of a certain amount. There are very few raising then, having no apprentices as who will not be able to obtain one or the seamen, (except officers, servants, and other. A certain time of liberty should midshipmen, are considered such, which then be allowed them. I do not,) and while they can navigate The impress service should be confid- their ships with foreigners and Lascars, ed to very different persons from those to no change will take place. This trade whom it is generally entrusted, and who ought to raise at least as many seamen as are frequently the refuse of mankind; a it now gives you, instead of drawing upseaman never forgives the outrage of be- on the navy, or other trades, to answer its ing seized upon by such miscreants. purpose.* What advantage government This abuse too often arises from the neg- can possibly deem they obtain from the lect of the Admiralty orders to officers present mode is beyond my comprehencommanding gangs, who leave it to men sion. That it tends to impede the raismost improperly selected. A gang is ing of seamen, is sufficient proof against seldom headed by a proper officer. The it without advancing any thing further persons employed upon that service upon the subject. With respect to this should possess a knowledge of seamen, trade I should propose, that, at the comwith a great share of prudence. mencement of a war, the first and second

No impress should take place abroad, except under the most imperious necessity, and rules should be laid down for its proper regulation.

When people are impressed from any officers be exempt from the impress. ship, it should be the duty of the officer either on board or on shore. If the who performs that service to afford the third officer had served one year in the ship immediate help, and to take her in- navy, prior to that time, he also should to her destined port, and the wages of be exempt. The fourth officer two the men ought to be secured to them years. The fifth and sixth officers, of while on board, and they should be un- all ships above six hundred tons, three der the control of the officers of such years. Boatswains, carpenters, and ship. gunners, four years. Cooks, stewards, &c. six years. Seamen eight years. And if it should be necessary to retain them one year longer, in that case they should receive double wages. All those No ship bound to a foreign station who fill such situations at the comshould be permitted to send on board of mencement of a war, not having served outward-bound vessels, and take, from in the navy during war, provided they them one or two men, as is often the enter into that service, shall be dischargcase at present, contrary to the orders of ed at the ends of the periods abovemengovernment. It is also necessary that apprentices should be protected by some better rules; which, upon any officer presuming to transgress, he should be amenable to punishment.

government and the East India Company, or
*It is an understood arrangement between
the owners of ships, that each ship shall turn
over in India a certain number of Brit sh see-

men to the men of war on the station.
a negative mode of manning the navy.

This is

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tioned. but if impressed, then two years ned with British-born subjects, at least to
more to be allowed for exemption. the extent of two-thirds of her comple-
Every ship should carry one apprentice, ment, with their proportion of appren-
during war, for every fifty tons of ton- tices.

nage. Half of whom should be inden- A certain regulation should take
tured from seventeen years and upwards place with respect to men in all other
for three years.
And no apprentice water employments; for whom I do not
should be impressed under the age of venture to offer regulations for want of
twenty if he has not been five years at proper information on the subject.
sea. All men who leave their country
during time of war, and go into foreign
service, or that are in foreign service, and
do not return within a limited time,
should be liable to double servitude if
impressed.

Transports should have three apprentices to every one hundred tons, half of whom should be above seventeen when indentured.

navy

Apprentices should not be permitted to enter into the without the approIn the West India trade the first mate bation of their masters, and in that case should be exempt as above; the second the unexpired term of apprenticeship mate, at the expiration of three years, should not be allowed as a part of the in ships of five hundred tons and up- term of exemption, and the regular wards. Third mate four years. Boat- bounty should be granted to the masters. swains and carpenters five years. Gunners, stewards, and cooks, seven years. Seamen eight years. And the same regulation should apply to all other vessels trading southward of the Canaries.

The West India Dock system, at present, with respect to apprentices, causes the loss of at least one thousand seamen annually.

In the American, Mediterranean, and Baltic trades, the first mate, if he has served one year in the navy, should be exempt from the impress. Second mate four years. Boatswains and carpenters six years. Gunners, stewards, and cooks, seven years. Seamen, eight years, &c. In the coal and coasting trades, first mate three years; second mate five years; other officers seven years; and seamen eight years, &c.

No vessel under fifty tons should protect a master except he has served three years in the navy, unless such vessel have two apprentices belonging to her; one of whom shall be seventeen years of age or upwards when indentured.

Ships employed in the Greenland trade and fisheries, should have regulations adapted for their purpose suitable to the above. Apprentices the same.

All running ships and packets should carry four apprentices to every ten of their compliment of men; half of each class.

All ships under the British flag, sailing to or from Europe, should be man

All men who have performed their services in the navy agreeable to these rules, should have a decided preference, as long as their conduct deserves it, during and after a war, in all shipping employments belonging to government, public docks, pilotage, &c. and the freedom of any town in the kingdom, where they might choose to settle or reside, after the war, should be theirs by right.

It would be desirable to institute public schools, founded upon voluntary contributions, in or near sea ports, devoted to the education of children of persons actually serving in the navy. And when their service expires, the education might be continued; but this must be regulated by the extent of the funds.

At the conclusion of a war, or at the expiration of time of servitude, the men should be conveyed, free of expense, to their nearest place of residence.

No ship should be allowed to sail outwards, at the commencement of a war, with more than one-third foreigners for the first two years; one-fourth for the third year; one-sixth for the fifth year; one-seventh for the sixth year; one-eighth for the seventh year, and the remaining period of war. This may be governed as circumstances require. Four years actually employed in the merchant service should be equal to two years in the navy.

A certain portion of lieutenants em

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