The insane in foreign countries . ng January I, 1887, was 9^. 6\d. In this well-ordered institution there was a remarkableabsence of ordinary methods of restraint. It was claimedwith great satisfaction by Dr. Brushfield that he had neverin his life ordered or sanctioned mechanical restraint of anykind. He admitted having met occasionally with casesin which such treatment might have been beneficial; butthe risk of abuse was so great that he had been led to dis-countenance it entirely. Seclusion had not been practisedunder his regime since 1871. He believed this practice ledto the neglect of som
The insane in foreign countries . ng January I, 1887, was 9^. 6\d. In this well-ordered institution there was a remarkableabsence of ordinary methods of restraint. It was claimedwith great satisfaction by Dr. Brushfield that he had neverin his life ordered or sanctioned mechanical restraint of anykind. He admitted having met occasionally with casesin which such treatment might have been beneficial; butthe risk of abuse was so great that he had been led to dis-countenance it entirely. Seclusion had not been practisedunder his regime since 1871. He believed this practice ledto the neglect of some of the worst cases ; he thereforeresolved to depart from it, and he never regretted its aban-donment. On being asked what he meant by mechanicalrestraint, Dr. Brushfield replied : The application of anything that hinders the patient in the free use of any partof his body. When he had a troublesome case he preferredto treat it in the ward. If a patient required seclusion, hewould be placed in a room with two or three attendants;. BROOKWOOD. 79 but in no case was a door locked. In fact, the attendantwho ventured to lock a door under such circumstanceswould be at once discharged. Formerly there was nopadded room ; now there are two, one on each side ofthe asylum. They are rarely used, being required onlyfor very violent and epileptic cases. Special restrainingcontrivances, the Doctor thinks, only increase excite-ment. He had frequently found it advantageous toremove a patient from one ward to another. He did notclassify to any extent, and had no refractory ward. Classi-fication, in his opinion, might easily be carried too he defined ordinarily to mean keeping a patientin a room with locked doors. In that sense he did notpermit seclusion, regarding it as a device for enabling andencouraging subordinate officers and attendants to shirktheir duty or abuse the patients. Each patient is weighedon admission and at different times during his stay in theasylum. The male at
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