Page:The Harveian oration 1866.djvu/56

 members of the Society of Friends, in 1792, and was opened for patients in 1796, the first physician being Dr Fowler. The first superintendent having died at the end of two months, William Tuke, though not a member of the medical profession, undertook the office for nearly twelve months, until a suitable successor could be found. George Jepson, who was then appointed to be resident apothecary and superintendent, contributed much to the success of the gentle treatment.

(See The Description of the Retreat. By Samuel Tuke. 1813.)

There are reasons for believing that the chief public asylums of England were in a better state than those of France prior to Pinel's reform at Bicêtre and La Salpêtrière.

Tenon in his Mémoires sur les Hôpitaux de Paris, 1788, says (p. 393):

"Les deux hôpitaux de fous les mieux conçus que nous connaissions sont ceux de Bethléem et de S. Luc à Londres, &c."

And again, in his Preface, p. xxv.:

"Le premier remède est d'offrir au fou une certaine liberté, de faire qu'il puisse se livrer mésurément aux impulsions que la nature lui commande; ce qu'on a très bien compris et éxecuté aux Hôpitaux de Bethléem et de Saint-Luc à Londres."

Daquin, in his Essay already referred to, when treating of the construction of Asylums, adds in a note:

"Il y a à Londres l'hôpital de Bethléem où les fous