TREATMENT OF CRIMINAL LUNATICS.
DR. PINOT, of Fisherton House Asylum, near Salisbury, calls upon the press to support him in a very proper appeal. The story of Mary Newell will be fresh in the recollection of every reader. Abandoned by the father of her Child, whose shameless repetition of the part of Inkle subjected him twbe 'Lynched " at Reading, the poor girl grew desperate, and wandering by the side of a rieer, she pushed her child in. Her despair, the anxiety of her trial, the conduCtof her betrayer, and the revulsion produced by her
mitigated sentence, brongTha6oNtevalidolent attack and it was ne- cessary to call medical aid into ing 011.0he was remo from the gaol-in the state called " raving inaip" ire secured in a strait-v.:a:1 tcoatt
and placed in an asylum. The mechanical restraint was at ones removed, the patient was put to bed, and active measures were taken for the relief of her brain ; and though it was once doubted whether she would ever recover, improvement commenced from the sixth day of her admission, She became more tranquil, and the restorer, healthy sleep, succeeded. Her natural ha- bits are fast returning,. and. mentally she is becoming convalescent.
But what is to be done with her ? Dr. Finch says, very truly, that if she is restored to health she is restored to gaol ;,but if she goes back to gaol, it is most probable that she will go back to mania,—cortainly not apunish- ment which jury, or judge, or Crown, intended to impose upon her. The case is deeply interesting, as presenting a remarkable problem in criminal jurisprudence ; and also as illustrating the effect, of non-restraint in the cure of mania.
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