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There are few causes of insanity which ought to be better understood by the community in order for them to know what treatment to give their insane friends; for instance, where it is produced by religious excitement, it would be wrong treatment for their friends to exhort them upon that topic, or even to pray with them, for it is like putting dry fuel to a blazing fire; and in no case should it be permitted. If people could see, as I have seen, the wreck of human reason, produced entirely by the terrible whirlwind of Millerism which swept over our land a few years since, they would be careful never to allow themselves to go into an exciting mis-called religious meeting. I have been confined with an insane Millerite, who was quite an intelligent man, and had taught a country school for fourteen winters, and the mental sufferings of that man were past all description. He would groan and sigh in such a manner that it would pierce your very soul with anguish to hear him. He imagined that he had committed the unpardonable sin, and had lived a whole life of sin; that all of his acts had been sin of the deepest scarlet, and that hell was his inevitable doom forever.

Another Millerite was in a very different state of mind from the above, and was perfectly happy. He imagined that he was God, and that there were none above him. "Why," said he, "I am God, for I can jump through the side of the house and not make a hole in it, and none but God can do that;" and in order to convince his friends that he really was what he said he was, he took a leap through the window, and, of course broke it all out. But even that did not convince him of his error, for he still persisted that he was God for he could take up fire in his hands and not be burned; and none but God could do that; and to convince all his friends of the reality of his assertions, he took up a handful of coals of fire; and then his friends were convinced that he was not what be professed to be, and he was brought to the hospital with a sore hand. Preaching or praying to that man would only injure him.

Were it proper that I should do so, in this little work, I would allude to the cause of insanity in young people of both sexes, by their own vile habits, but there are little medical works devoted exclusively to the subject, which should be in the hand of all parents, that they may know what council to give their children when they arrive at a proper age to receive such instruction. But I would here advise people never to send them to an Insane Hospital for medical treatment, as imprisonment generally adds ten-fold to the disease which is consuming them. I once asked one of the old attendants to tell me candidly what proportion of all patients sent to the hospital were thus benefited. He thought one in ten was all, and no more, that derived tiny real benefit from being there.

The reading world will remember the case of Mr. Saunders, who made his almost miraculous escape from the Insane Hospital in New Hampshire, a few years since; a very plain case of false imprisonment, which called down the just indignation of the people upon the heads of the authors. They will also recollect the case of Mr. Hinchman, of Philadelphia, who was retained in the Insane Hospital by his malignant enemies, but who finally fought against most fearful odds, and gained a crowning victory by obtaining $10,000 damages for his false imprisonment. Another case quite as familiar to the public, was that of Mr. Oaks, of Cambridge, Mass., who was buried alive in the McLean Insane Asylum, by his own heirs, to rob him of his property. He remained a prisoner there for four years, but finally obtained his liberty and property, by appealing to the supreme court. I have no doubt, could I have the privilege to do so, were I to visit all of the Insane Hospitals in the country, and spend a week or two in each of them, that I could find a multitude of cases similar to the above and my own; cases that would astonish the people of the country beyond their comprehension. In closing my narrative of abuses, I trust that all who have read attentively these few pages, will feel themselves amply repaid for their money and time, which they have devoted to its perusal, and I trust they will all bestir themselves to look after all Insane Hospitals, and those who may be incarcerated within their walls.

Now I have come to the close, and I wish to make a few "summing" up remarks. In all calamnities befalling the progress of nature -- the elevating of man and christianity -- of course, somebody is to be offered up a sacrifice upon the altar of Right and Justice, before truth prevails. In this case I have been the victim, and I have no higher ambition to gratify during the rest of my natural life, than of feeling conscious at my death hour that I have done my duty as a man, suffered and borne meekly as a christian, and prefer the honor of benefiting my race, to all other worldly power and aggrandizement. I wish it to be distinctly understood by friends, and even those who prefer to be my enemies, that I feel perfectly conscious of my own entire sanity; and upon the strength of which, I do assert, that so strong is the prejudice against the poor unfortunate creatures, once having had the misfortune to become an inmate of a mad-house, that never after is he recognized as a fit and reliable witness in a court of law, or is he again looked upon as he once was, even in the community in which before he may have been esteemed a good and useful citizen. This stigma I have suffered from severely, knowing as I do that I have been wantonly deprived of my civil rights as a citizen of this great Republic, by those whose wealth and power enables them to crush me, in order to screen their iniquity. Therefore the admission once into an Insane Asylum, like the incarceration of a felon in a Penitentiary, ever after incapacitates him from mingling in society, and enjoying his former and mostly desirable privileges of life; his domestic and friendly relations with his fellow beings. This, of itself, is sufficient cause for all, and more than I have said or written, in condemnation of the Maine Insane Hospital, its rulers and vampire officers. I have stated my own grievances pretty succinctly; in relation to the other cases; such as I state I have witnessed myself, are true, and I firmly believe, that all the other cases that I have cited are true in their material points. There may possibly be some slight errors in the details, but I would further state, that it is my firm belief, that there are a multitude of cases of which no report is given, more atrocious, barbarous and bloody ! and I do therefore most urgently move that they, the friends, or those professing to be such, shall rather confine their poor forlorn and afflicted brother or sister, in the deepest cellar or remotest garret, chain, confine, neglect, spurn, burn, freeze or starve, do anything, however bitter or unfeeling, rather than send them to an Insane Hospital, to be tortured by such cannibals.