In Memoriam
Forbes Benignus Winslow, M.D., D.C.L. Hon. Oxon.
“VYe cannotf allow this first number of the New Series of the ” Psychological Journal” to issue from the press without paying a sincere tribute of respect and affection to one who was associated with the journal, as editor and proprietor, from its earliest days.
Dr Forbes Winslow, following in the steps of Pinel and the Tukes of York, was, with the late Dr Conolly, one of the first to systematise a gentle, persuasive, and loving treatment of the insane, who had hitherto been regarded in the light of wild beasts, to be curbed and restrained by bolts, bars, and keepers’ whips, rather than as human beings, fallen, indeed, from their high state, but amenable to tenderness and judicious kindness. He it was who created the science of Psychology, and gave to it a local habitation and a name, at least so far as this country is concerned. He was the first physician who urged the plea of insanity in criminal cases: a plea which has outlived the assaults of popular clamour and ignorance, and is now accepted as valid in the courts of law.
He likewise has contributed largely to the literature of his country, his magnum opus, ” The Obscure Diseases of the Brain and Mind,” being one of the scientific classics of the English language.
These achievements, combined with his successful ministry to ” the mind diseased,” and his unvarying kindness, generosity, and deep religious feeling, have earned for him a world-wide reputation, a reputation vi ” m MEMORIAM.
which, we can confidently predict, will shine with purer and clearer lustre as time allows of full justice being done to the great work he has accomplished.
Dr Forbes Winslow is now happily beyond the reach of all human criticism; the work of his anxious life consummated, he sleeps well. Nevertheless, it may be pleasing to our readers, as well as gratifying to our- selves, if we briefly recall some incidents of his remark- able career. Dr Forbes Winslow, the ninth son of Capt. Thomas Winslow, of Her Majesty’s 47th Regiment of Foot, and of Mrs. Mary Winslow, whose memoirs have obtained for her considerable celebrity in the religious world, was born in London, 1810. He was a lineal descendant of the famous Edward Winslow, first Governor of New Plymouth, one of the leaders of the Pilgrim Fathers, who left England in the “Mayflower” in 1620. During the War of Independence, the Wins- lows were ardent Royalists, and at the termination of the war all the extensive family estates at Boston were confiscated, and Dr Winslow’s family came to England. He was educated in Scotland, and commenced his pro- fessional education in New York, continuing the study of medicine, for which he early evinced a very strong predilection, at the University of London, where he was a pupil of Drs. Turner, Elliotson, and Quain, and also at Middlesex Hospital, where he had the advantage of being a pupil of Sir Charles Bell, whose brilliant re- searches into the mysteries of the nervous system were then causing a complete revolution in physiological science.
At the commencement of his career, owing to the straitened family circumstances, Dr Forbes Winslow was met by obstacles which would have daunted a less ardent and ambitious mind; but with him difficulties were only made to be overcome, and his eager thirst for knowledge, his determination to make his mark in the world, and the consciousness of power within, carried him triumphantly through all his early struggles. He would work all day at the hospital, and then, as reporter for the Times, go in the evening to the Gallery in the House of Commons, so paying for the expenses of his own education.
This practice he carried on later in life. Of these early days an intimate friend has thus written:?” Even after he had retired from general practice, had taken his degree in medicine, and removed to a private house in Guilford Street, Russell Square, he continued for some time to report for the Times. It was no uncommon thing for him to leave the Times’ office at seven or eight in the morning, take a hasty breakfast, and be ready to receive patients by ten o’clock. He managed to steal two or three hours of sleep in the course of the day, but was always ready, and apparently fresh, to take his turn in the Gallery when he was required. The labours, physical and mental, which he then underwent would have undermined a constitution less sturdy and healthy than his. But he was made of the right stuff for work, and possessed a cheerfulness of spirit, a hopefulness and self-reliance, which carried him through.”
Even while he was a student he began to show signs of his possession of the literary faculty; in 1831 he read a paper on the “Application of the Principles of Phrenology to the treatment and cure of Insanity,” which he afterwards published as a pamphlet; then a manual of Osteology, a manual of Practical Midwifery, and the Student’s Pocket Guide to the College of Surgeons. These manuals were written in his early days, with the view of defraying the expenses of his own education, his pen being then the only means he had; he obtained ?50 for his first manual, and with this sum he paid his fees for lectures at the hospitals. He never alluded in his later days to the literary efforts of his earlier career, and the existence of these manuals were not even known to the members of his own family, who were professionally associated with him; in fact, Dr Forbes Winslow was a self-made man, and made his way and name in the world by indomitable perseverance and talent. We remember his telling us that frequently, after having been engaged in the House reporting, and notwithstanding that he had been at his professional work at the hospital during the day, he would, as soon as the House rose, steal off with a candle to the dissecting-room, and though worn out with the labours of the day, resume his anatomical studies. In 1835 he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and shortly afterwards graduated as Doctor of Medicine at the University of Aberdeen, and was elected as Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, and subsequently as Member of the Royal College of Physicians, London, 1859.
In 1839 he produced his first considerable work ” Physic and Physicians,” which subsequently passed through three editions ; an amusing book, brimful of anecdotes and curious information as to the early struggles, eccentricities, and careers of eminent medical men. In 1840 he brought out ” The Anatomy of Suicide,” the first book ever written in England on the subject. In this work his object was to plead for the abolition of the verdict of Felo-de-se in cases of suicide. In every case of suicide he maintained that there was a perversion in a greater or smaller degree of the intellectual and moral faculties, the act of self-destruction itself being often the very first symptom of this perversion. “To punish suicide as a crime is to commit a solecism in legislation. The unfortunate individual by the very act of suicide places himself beyond the vengeance of the law ; he has anticipated its operation ; he has rendered himself amenable to the highest tribunal? viz. that of his Creator; no penal enactments, however stringent, can affect him. It is unjust, inhuman, un- natural, and un-Christian, that the law should punish the innocent family of the man who, in a moment of frenzy, terminates his own miserable existence.” These views, which were somewhat novel at the time they were written, are now accepted by all right-thinking men, and the useless and cruel verdict of Felo-de-se is very seldom recorded.
About this period he published a book on ” The Preservation of the Health of Body and Mind,” which received the very highest encomiums from the press, and was hailed as indicating the approach of a new era in the history of medicine. In 1843 he produced a small work which went through three editions, and eventually caused a revolution in the procedure of our courts of law ; we refer to his ” Plea of Insanity in Criminal Cases,” of which we shall have more to say further on.
His success in life was now assured. To carry his theories into practice, in 1847 he founded two private asylums for the care and treatment of the insane, at Sussex and Brandenburgh Houses, Hammersmith.. Here, perhaps, he went further than all his compeers, in the completeness with which he carried out his benevolent views. Kindness and gentleness were the two universal factors in his treatment. The surveillance to which his patients were submitted, while unremitting in the care of dangerous cases, was most unobtrusive; concerts, dinner parties, balls, games of all kinds and varieties, were called in to play their part in his scheme. The life of the asylums was essentially a home life, the good doctor and his family living in the midst of his patients, who became for the time being members of his family circle. Those who manifested signs of improvement were allowed to go out of the gates on parole, and this parole was most honourably observed. This treatment, combined with skilful therapeutic remedies, produced in many cases very marked results, and during the latter part of his life Dr Winslow was continually receiving most pleasing tributes of affection from grate- ful patients, to whom he had restored the light of reason. In 1848 he founded the ” Quarterly Journal of Psycho- logical Medicine,” which enjoyed a high reputation and large circulation. It was remarkable not only for its profound scientific thought, but also for its wide range of subjects. This journal continued in existence for sixteen years, and bears in its pages ample proof of the literary capacity and singular ability of its editor. His next productions were a ” Synopsis of the Law of Lunacy, the Lunacy Act, with Notes,” ” Softening” of the Brain from Anxiety,” &c.
In 1851 he was elected President of the Medical Society of London, and on the establishment of the Juridical Society, he was elected Vice-President, and read before its members an elaborate paper on ” The Legal Doctrine of Responsibility in cases of Insanity connected with alleged Criminal Acts,” and at the late Lord Derby’s installation as Chancellor of the University of Oxford he had the very high honour of having con- ferred upon him the honorary degree of D.C.L. He was selected by the Medical Society as the Lettsomian Professor of Medicine for 1851-52, when he delivered three lectures, subsequently published, 1, on the Psy- chological Vocation of the Physician; 2, on the Medical Treatment of Insanity; 3, on Medico-Legal Evidence in cases of Insanity.
The year 1860 saw the issue of his great work, called by one of the Quarterlies ” the master effort of a great philosopher,” his fascinating book ” On the Obscure Diseases of the Brain and Mind,” intended as a preliminary volume to a larger and more comprehen- sive work, ” On the Softening of the Brain,” unhappily not completed at his death. This production passed rapidly through four editions, and is to this day the text-book on the subject of which it treats. From the pureness of its style, the clearness as well as depth of its thoughts, and the ability with which the reader is carried with unabated interest from beginning to end of the volume, this work may fairly be considered as one of the classics of the English language. We have space but for one beautiful and suggestive passage :? ” The physician should entertain right notions of his duty and position, and encourage elevated, lofty thoughts and grand conceptions of his honourable voca- tion. He should impress repeatedly, earnestly, and solemnly upon his own, as well as upon the minds of all engaged in the same holy work, the fact that they are conjointly occupied in the study and treatment of a class of diseases affecting the very source, spring, and fountain of that principle which in its healthy operation alone can bring man into remote proximity to Deity; that the physician has to deal with the spiritual part of liis complex nature, with tliat which elevates him in the scale of created excellence, and places him high on the pedestal among the great, the good, and the wise. But his functions expand in interest, gravity, gran- deur, and importance as he reflects that it is Human Mind prostrated, perverted, and often crushed by disease with which he has to deal; that he has placed under his care a class of the afflicted human family, reduced by the inscrutable decrees of Providence to the most humiliating and helpless position to which a rational being can fall; that it is his duty to witness the melancholy wreck of great and noble minds, and to sigh over the decay of exalted genius.
” Like the historian and antiquarian wandering with a sad heart over ground made classical and memorable in the story of great men, and in the annals of heroic deeds, surveying with painful interest the ruins of ancient temples, viewing with vivid emotion the almost extinguished remains of proud imperial cities, consecrated by the genius of men renowned in the world’s history as statesmen, scholars, artists, philo- sophers, and poets, so it is the duty of the mental physician to wander through the ruins of still greater temples than any raised in ancient days to the honour of imaginary Deities. It is his distressing province to witness great and good intellects, proud and elevated understandings, levelled to the earth, and there crumb- ling like dust in the balance, under the influence of disease.
” Survey that old man crouched in the corner of the room, with his face buried in his hands. He is indifferent to all that is passing around him; he heeds not the voice of man nor woman; he delights not in the carolling of birds nor in the sweet music of the rippling brooks. The gentle wind of heaven, playing its sweetest melody as it rushes through the greenwood, awakens in his mind no consciousness of nature’s charms. Speak to him in terms of endearment and affection ; bring before him the glowing and impassioned images of the past. He elevates himself, gazes listlessly and mechanically at you, ‘ makes no sign,’ and, dropping his poor head, buries it in his bosom, and sinks into his former state of moody, melancholy abstraction. This man’s oratory charmed the senate ; the magic of his eloquence held thousands in a state of breathless admiration ; his influence was commanding, his saga- city eminently acute, and his judgment profound. “View him as he is fallen from his hiffh and honourable ?estate.
” Listen to the sweet and gentle voice of yonder woman, upon whose head scarcely eighteen summer suns have shed their genial warmth and influence. How merrily she dances over the greensward! How touchingly she warbles, like Ophelia, in her delirium, snatches of song! What a pitiful spectacle of a sweet mind lying in beautiful fragments before us ! Look! she has decked herself with a spring garland. Now she holds herself perfectly erect, and walks with queenly majesty. Approach and accost her ; she exclaims, ‘ Yes, he will come ; he promised to be here; where are the guests? where is the ring? where is my wedding- dress?my orange blossoms?’ Suddenly her mind is overshadowed, and her face assumes an expression of deep, choking, and bitter anguish?she alternately sobs and laughs, is gay and sad, cheerful and melancholy? Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself, She turns to favour and to prettiness.
” Speak again to her, and another change takes place in the spirit of her dream. Like her sad prototype, the sweetest creation of Shakspeare’s immortal genius, she plaintively sings? He is dead and gone, lady, He is dead and gone; At his head a green grass turf, At his heels a stone ! ” Her history is soon told. Deep and absorbing passion, elevated hopes, bright, sunny, and fanciful dreams of the future?Death with all its factitious trappings, sad and solemn mockery of woe?seared affections, a broken heart, and a disordered brain ! ” In 1856 Dr Winslow was elected President of the Psychological Association.
In 1865 Dr Winslow had a serious illness which brought him to the verge of the grave, and confined him for a year to his bed, and during convalescence he wrote, more for amusement than anything else, a pleasant, chatty book, on ” Light and its Influence;” he likewise issued a pamphlet on ” Uncontrollable Drunken- ness, Considered as a Form of Mental Disorder,”’ which created great interest, and opened a new sphere of usefulness ; and in 1872 he was examined as a special witness before a Select Committee of the House of Commons, appointed to enquire into the general management of drunkards. Besides these literary labours he was a constant contributor to the medical and daily papers, working readily with his pen, in the midst of the greatest noise and distraction, having a singular power of immediate concentration of thought. We should fail to do justice to his memory did we not dwell especially upon that which we may call the grand achievement of his life?the establishment of the plea of insanity in criminal cases.
At the trial of McNaughten for the murder of Mr. Drummond, Dr Winslow, who was in Court, and who had not been summoned on either side, was asked by the judge to enter the witness-box; and after he had given his evidence in favour of the insanity of the luckless murderer, Lord Chief Justice Tindal inter- posed and stopped the case, as his evidence, combined with that of a previous witness, Mr. Aston Key, proved beyond all doubt the insanity of the murderer. From that time Dr Winslow has been constantly summoned as a medical jurist in cases of doubtful insanity, and has been instrumental in saving many a poor irrational lunatic from the last terrors of the law. The opposi- tion which he had to encounter before he could get this plea of insanity established is well nigh incredible, save to those who know how conservative our lawyers are, and how jealous they manifest themselves of any intru- sion on their prerogatives, and also how unthinking and unreasonable, for the most part, public opinion is when its feelings are strongly excited. On this matter we will let the doctor speak for himself:?
” A man commits a murder. He is tried for the crime. The plea of insanity is raised in his defence, upon what is conceived to be sound evidence, of the exist- ence of mental derangement at the time of the murder. The attempt thus made to protect the criminal imme- diately rouses public indignation. Such an excuse is not in many instances listened to, and the unfortunate medical witnesses who have been called upon to exer- cise an important, and often thankless duty, in support of the plea, are exposed, for giving an honest expression of opinion, to the most unmeasured ridicule and vitupe- ration. In defending the memory of the suicide from the disgrace that would accompany a verdict of Felo-de- se, the evidence of the medical man proving insanity is regarded with great respect, and treated with profound deference ; but in his effort to save a lunatic from the agonies of a painful death upon the scaffold, on evi- dence much stronger than was adduced before the previously mentioned Court, the expert is exposed to unmitigated abuse. Instead of being considered as an angel of mercy engaged in the exercise of a holy and righteous mission, he is viewed with suspicion, and often treated with contumely, as if he were attempting to sacrifice instead of to save human life. Again, the attempt to prove sanity and mental capacity at a Com- mission of Lunacy, with the object of preserving intact the liberty of the subject, and establishing his right to an unfettered management of his property, is applauded to the very echo; but any endeavour to excuse, on the plea of insanity, the crime of some un- happy wretch alleged to be an irresponsible lunatic, in order to rescue him from penal servitude, or from the hands of the executioner, is denounced, in unqualified language, as a most monstrous, unjustifiable, and iniquitous interference with the course of justice. The excuse of insanity will not, in many cases, under these circumstances, be tolerated by a portion of the press. The public mind is violently shocked at the commission of a horrible and brutal murder. The act is viewed as one of great and barbarous atrocity, apart altogether from its concomitant extenuating medico-psychological considerations. The cry is raised for ‘ vengeance! ‘ The shout is, ‘ an eye for an eye! ‘ 1 a tooth for a tooth !’ ‘ blood for blood!’ forgetting in the paroxysm of indignant emotion and frenzy of excited feeling engendered by the contemplation of a dreadful violation of the majesty of the law, that justice must be tempered with that Divine mercy which sanctifies and enshrines The throned monarch better than his crown.
And is the attribute of God Himself.” These words were written ex anim.o pleno, and are evidently dictated by sad experience. However, Dr. Forbes Winslow had the satisfaction before his death of seeing his views generally accepted, and the plea for which he had so valiantly striven now passes unchal- lenged in our courts of law. Other physicians have since written on the same subject, but palmam qui meruit ferat; and we repeat, it is to Dr Forbes Winslow that the honour of first establishing the plea in England is due. We may mention the following memorable cases, in which Dr Winslow was engaged as a medical expert:?In the trial of Atkinson, who mur- dered his sweetheart; in the case of Mrs. Brough, the wet-nurse of the Prince of Wales, who murdered her six children ; of Weston, who shot Mr. Waugh, the Solicitor of Bedford Row ; of Mrs. Yyse, who mur- dered her children. He made an ineffectual attempt to save Buranelli, the Italian, who was undoubtedly mad. The two cases of young Windham and George Victor Townley, in which he asserted the existence of insanity, in opposition to excited popular feeling, and almost the entire public press, proved by their final issue the cor- rectness of his judgment ; Windham, by his painful end, proving to us his utter inability to take charge of himself or his property, and Townley terminating his existence by suicide in his prison.
Besides these more notable cases he was often called into consultation by the prison authorities as to the insanity, feigned or otherwise, of the prisoners under their charge. He was also largely consulted in cases of legal dispute involving questions of mental capacity; and many points of extreme delicacy involving large and important interests were submitted to his unerring tact and judgment.
So much for his professional and public life ; of his generosity and kindness to needy members of the pro- fession and to those around him, of his geniality and brightness, and the deep religious principles which enabled him to administer to the souls as well as the minds and bodies of his patients, it is not our desire to speak?these are written, we trust, in the records of another Book. He never recovered the great shock which he received some nine years before his death, and ‘ although he rallied in a certain measure, he gradually became more and more incapable of very active exertion, keeping possession, however, of his clear faculties and cheerfulness even to the very last. In March 1874, at light on, he succumbed to Bright’s Disease, having earned for himself an imperishable memorial in the love and gratitude of his countrymen, having acted up to the spirit of those memorable words with which he concludes his great work :?” The spirit of love, tender sympathy, Christian benevolence, unwearying kindness, and warm affection, should influence every thought, look, and action of those engaged in the responsible treatment of the insane. It is the special province of the psycho- logical physician to
Fetter strong madness in a silken thread, Charm ache Avith air, and agony with words. What a holy, honourable, and sacred occupation is that m which he has the privilege of being engaged! An- gelic spirits might well envy him the ennobling and exalted pleasures incidental to his mission of benevolence and love.”
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