Page:The Harveian oration 1866.djvu/31

 and investigations. It is at once an assurance of steady progress, and a safeguard against the premature generalizations which sorely tempt medical enquirers. It promotes a wholesome criticism of new views, and is a check on their too hasty adoption.

In following the course of men who have searched out the secrets of Nature, we have had regard chiefly to the intellectual powers and processes by which their success was achieved. Let us now, with one more instance, illustrate their moral qualities and temper of mind. Let our instance be the improvement in the treatment of the insane.

We may doubt whether anything in the history of the world can be found more sad, or more humiliating to the pride of civilization, than the descriptions we have of the condition of lunatics in the time of our fathers. The influence of kind and gentle treatment was unknown. It had not been tried. Those who aimed at controlling the lunatic sought to do it by severity—by inspiring him with awe and dread. The bath of surprise and the whirling chair were among the most refined of