rooms except in extreme maniacal conditions which require quiet and repose. As a disciplinary measure isolation is seldom necessary, and as our supervisors' monthly reports show, is rarely resorted to. The great changes in the social and industrial life of the hospital which have sprung up under the new regime are indeed perpetual sources of gratification and wonder. Truly, as visitors often say to me, we observe very little that is at all distinctive in the life and habits of the insane in a well conducted asylum for their care. It would really seem that there is little, if any thing, more to be accomplished in the care and treatment of the insane in the best of these institutions. Progress in this direction seems to have caught up and kept pace with the general advance. Let us see to it that we take no step backward.

"MECHANICAL RESTRAINT.

"It was determined ten years ago to introduce into this hospital, if practicable, the system of absolute non-restraint, which has been so successfully practiced in Great Britain under the auspices of Dr. Conolly and his followers. The idea embraced in this system is that the insane, in public hospitals, can be controlled and treated more humanely, and with better results, without the use of straight-jackets, camisoles, muffs, wristlets, restraining chairs, bed-straps, crib-bedsteads, or any other of the various appliances commonly known as restraining apparatus. How this experiment has succeeded my reports for the last ten years will amply testify. During this long period, with a household averaging nearly a thousand patients, there has been no resort whatever to any species of mechanical restraint, for either surgical or other purposes. Not a vestige of restraining apparatus of any kind is to be found about the premises, nor has there occurred a single case in the wards of the hospital, during this long period, which seemed to justify or require its use. Instances have occasionally occurred which to others, might have appeared to call for such applications; but in no single case have they failed in our hands to yield to milder measures. I had a patient a short while ago who persisted in stuffing towels and articles of bedding and clothing down his throat with a view to self-destruction. I was apprehensive at first that this case, which was the

worst we have ever had to deal with, would prove intractable, and that we might finally have to resort to extreme measures; but a few days of constant watching, by day and night, entirely dispelled this fear, and relieved our patient of his self-destructive proclivities.

"I take the greater pleasure in recording each year the unbroken success that has followed the practice of this system of non-restraint in the Alabama Insane Hospital for the reason that there has arisen of late, both in this country and abroad, a decided reaction against the extreme views of Dr. Conolly and his followers. Many of our ablest and most experienced physicians, in charge of the insane, hold that it is possible to carry the non-restraint principle too far, and at too great a cost. The majority of our American superintendents have openly expressed and advocated these views; and under the leadership of such eminent men as Doctors Savage and Yellowlees, of Great Britain, many of our confreres across the water, we are sorry to say, are rapidly joining the ranks of the reactionists.

"The evil to be feared with regard to the employment of even the minimum amount of mechanical restraint, is that its legitimate and judicious use at first, will almost surely lead to its abuse in the end. Human judgment, under the most favorable conditions, is often unreliable and erring; but more especially is this the case when dealing with a problem so variable and complex as the one we are now considering. Under this milder system of government, which, for ten consecutive years, has been in operation in this hospital, we have been rewarded with the most gratifying success. Nothing has occurred during that comparatively long period of time to change our opinions as to its safety and utility. On the contrary, as I have reported on so many previous occasions, the experience of each successive year serves only the more surely to strengthen and confirm these impressions. The comparative order and quiet that prevail among our 1,100 patients, so evident to every one who visits the hospital; the industry, cheerfulness, and spirit of contentment which are every where apparent; and the absence of all complaints of ill treatment or neglect of any kind, as well as the universal feeling of confidence and respect evidenced for both officers and nurses, are some of the fruits of

this system which we would not willingly forego. We are therefore not prepared to abandon it, nor to break our long and honorable record by a hasty or uncalled for resort to manual restraint.

OCCUPATION, DIVERSION, ETC.

"Carlisle, in one of his masterly treatises, remarks that 'work is the grand cure of all the maladies and miseries that ever beset mankind.' Had he been writing with special reference to the insane, he could not have made a truer observation. If there is any one thing more than another calculated to destroy the peace and tranquility of the patients, and the orderly quiet of the wards in which they reside, it is a life of enforced idleness. The idle man or woman, whether in or out of an insane asylum, is either miserable or mischief making; and this is especially true of an insane person who is willing and has the capacity to engage in some congenial and suitable occupation.

"The rule here is that all must work except the sick or the acutely insane, and the result is that more than ninety per cent. of our women, and seventy-five per cent. of our men are regularly engaged in some useful and pleasant occupation. The women patients and their nurses make all the clothing for both men and women in the house. They spin thread from the raw cotton; knit all the socks and stockings worn by the plainer class of patients; make hundreds of patch-work quilts; work in the laundry, ironing room, and other outside departments, and assist the nurses in performing their work in the dining rooms, wards, etc. The men work in the garden, on the farm, in the shops, and in nearly all the outside departments. It is more difficult, however, to find suitable or congenial occupation for the better class of men, and for this reason the percentage of workers falls below that of the women. "By far the best and safest work I have ever found for the average insane man is moving soil in a wheelbarrow. He can perform this work in the open air, and at an easy, go-as-youplease pace. Working alone as it were, and with an implement which cannot be turned to harm, he is in little or no danger of being imposed upon, driven too hard, or injured by other patients. One of my patients very wittily as well as wisely remarked to me that he thought a crazy man and a

wheelbarrow must have been made for each other.'

Hundreds

of our male patients are engaged every day in terracing and grading the grounds of the hospital, and we still have enough of that kind of work left, I am glad to say, to keep them employed for many years to come.

"Amusements have also their place in the regime of every well conducted hospital for the insane, but they are of little importance as a remedial agent when compared to work. Our large amusement hall is opened nearly every evening in the week after tea for the diversion of the patients. Dances, in which all the patients are encouraged to engage, occupy two evenings in the week, while the others are devoted to games, exhibitions, readings, music, or other pastimes of a suitable character. Long walks on the lawn, in the woods, or the surrounding country, are taken every day by the men and women, when the weather permits; and out-door games of all kinds are frequently resorted to by those who prefer that kind of exercise.

"Reading is also a prolific source of amusement to our patients. The library has been enlarged by the addition of several hundred excellent books, which are eagerly sought after by the reading class of patients. Several hundred large and handsomely framed chromos and engravings have also been added to those already in our possession, and the walls of every room and of every ward in the hospital are now decorated with attractive pictures. Even the wards in which the most disturbed classes of patients are kept, are hung with pictures which, I am glad to say, are highly appreciated, and rarely or never injured.

"Divine services are held in the chapel on Sunday afternoons by the ministers of the several religious denominations in the city, and a service of sacred song after tea is conducted by the supervisors. These services are always well attended and highly appreciated."

PART SEVENTH.

THE CONVICT SYSTEM OF ALABAMA AS IT WAS

AND AS IT IS.

By R. H. Darson, President Board of Inspectors of Convicts.

"I dare not forge a flattering tale;

I dread to grieve thee with a harsh, offensive truth."

The development of material resources in Alabama during the past twenty years has been unparalleled; but, great as it has been, intellectual and moral progress has more than kept pace with it, and, while our new cities and various industrial establishments gratify our State pride, our institutions of religion and learning, and of charity, show to the world that we are not unmindful of the higher duties of civilization.

It is, therefore, matter of surprise that so little attention has been paid to the reformation of criminals. For the last one hundred years, in all civilized countries, this has been a subject of absorbing interest, not only to philanthropists, but also to statesmen, and the decrease of crime is regarded as of the utmost importance to the prosperity of society.

But so little attention has been given to this subject among us that the public generally do not know that there is no penitentiary system in Alabama, and, in fact, strictly speaking, no penitentiary. Instead of a penitentiary system, we have two systems of penal servitude - State and county - both founded upon the convict lease system, which cannot be defended, and for which an apology is attempted upon the ground of necessity, which is said to "know no law," and is often made the excuse for wrong, and sometimes for crime.