English Dictionary

The cruel fallacy, long acted upon, that the insane were insensible to cold, and to other modifications of pain, is exploded; and under the new system, they are treated with the tenderest care, and ample provision is made for their every physical want. The old system inculcated that insane minds could not be stungby insult or shame, dishonor or injustice; the new teaches that “harshness and abuse fall with tenfold force upon minds impaired and enervated by disease; that in most cases of insanity enough of intelligence and feeling are retained to render the patient fully sensible of the import and the cruelty of what is said; and that in many cases the mind, instead of becoming obluse, or deadened, is endowed with an unusual sensitiveness, with an acuteness of perception, upon which the insults and insinuations of the rude, or the indelicate, or the cruel, must produce the most aggravated pain.”