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After mentioning a recourse to the strait waistcoat, the tranquilizing chair, (which is an invention of Dr. Rush,) the privation of customary pleasant food, and pouring cold water under the coat sleeves, so that it may descend to the arm pits, he adds, "if all these modes of punishment should fail of the intended effect, it will be proper to resort to the fear of death?"

I need but mention these remarks of Dr. Rush, to show that he was far behind not only the present age in the moral treatment of the insane, but in arrear of Pinel, whose treatise on insanity had been published several years when Dr. Rush wrote.

Doct. Wyman, the first Physician and Superintendent of the McLean Asylum, though not extensively known by his published writings, was a man of superior qualifications, and admirably qualified for the station he held.

He had much architectural and mechanical ingenuity, and to him we are indebted for some of our best arrangements for the care of the insane. His untiring industry, his constant devotedness to the welfare of those under his charge, his sterling integrity and exactness in everything belonging to the duties of his station, furnished an example that has been in the highest degree salutary.

Having no similar institutions in tins country to look to for guidance, he had to depend upon the resources of his own head and heart, and fortunately these were both good, and consequently, most that he devised and suggested, has stood the test of time and experience. Dr. Wyman had, we think, one fault, considering the station he held, and this was excessive modesty or disinclination to make known his improvements and the success that attended his labors. Owing to his extreme sensitiveness on this subject, he is less known, and probably accomplished less good than men of less real merit. That his views of both moral and medical treatment, wove what we now deem correct, is evident from the following note to his discourse on "Mental Philosophy as connected with Mental Disease," delivered before the Massachusetts Medical Society. "In mental disorders," he says, "without symptoms of organic disease, a judicious moral management is most successful. It should afford agreeab1e occupation. It should engage the mind, and exercise the body; as in riding, walking, sewing, embroidery, bowling, gardening, mechanic arts to which may be added, reading, writing, conversation, &c., the whole to be performed with order and regularity. Even the taking of food, retiring to bed, rising in the morning and at stated times, and conforming to stated rules in almost every thing, is a most salutary discipline. It requires, however, constant attention and vigilance, with the greatest kindness in the attendants upon a lunatic. Moral treatment is indispensable, even in cases arising from organic disease.

In regard to medical treatment, I believe that purging, bleeding, low diet, &c., have been adopted with little discrimination. They are to be resorted to only when there is organic disease, which requires the reducing plan. But these remedies, especially in debilitated subjects, are seldom useful in relieving mental disease. They are usually injurious, and frequently fatal."

Dr. Todd, of Hartford, we also recal with pleasing recollections. He possessed, as Spurzheim said after seeing him, to the writer of this article, "a mountain of benevolence," to which were added a good education, fine personal appearance, most engaging manners, and very superior conversational powers, all of which eminently fitted him for the moral treatment of the insane, in which he particularly excelled. His great merit we conceive, is, his having zealously embraced, and practically introduced into this country, and made extensively known here the moral and medical treatment recommended by Pinel, Tuke and Willis. To use his own words found in his first Report, he made the "Law of kindness, the all pervading power of the moral discipline of the Retreat, and required unvaried gentleness and respect to be manifested towards the inmates of the institution, by every member belonging to it."

He early discountenanced depletion, particularly bleeding in insanity, and insisted upon the necessity of generous diet, and recommended a frequent resort to tonics and narcotics in the medical treatment of the insane.

This course of treatment, though it had been recommended by the best writers on insanity in Europe, had not to much extent been resorted to in this country, previous to the time of Dr. Todd. and it was so contrary to that recommended by Dr. Rush, that it required considerable boldness, and much address and management to introduce it, and make it popular in this country, and this, Dr. Todd accomplished.

As already stated, but few improvements in the moral treatment of the insane have been made, since the time of Pinel and Tuke. In their writings, all those methods that we now deem most essential, are clearly pointed out and insisted upon. Still these methods have by the labors of others, become more generally known and established, and in some respects improved.