WHAT DID REALLY HAPPEN IN DAYS GONE BY? 

WET PACK ACCOUNT 
He went away and pretty soon the prize-fighter and another husky came in, carrying what looked like the 
hotel wet-wash. They fixed the bed so it wouldn't soak through to the mattress, then laid me straight and 
naked on the bed with my arms pressed along my sides like a soldier lying at attention and began swathing 
me, rolling me on one side and then the other, in tight wet sheets, so that the weight of my body rolling back 
would pull them smoother and tighter, over and over again, until they stood off to smooth any wrinkles out of 
the job and look at it and see if it was all right. I was flat on my back. Except that my head stuck out and lay 
comfortably on a pillow, I was the mummy of Rameses. I couldn't bend my elbows or knees. I couldn't even 
double my fists. My hands were pressed flat. I couldn't move a muscle except by telegraphing a deliberate 
local order to it as oriental dancers do. This was the famous 'pack.' It occurred to me that I'd have been 
willing to bet any amount of money and I still would that this would have held Houdini. I had seen 
straitjackets on the vaudeville stage, and a straitjacket was a ten-acre field compared to this cocoon. It was 
tighter than any kid glove. And the tightness was so uniform that it didn't stop circulation. After they had 
gone I started to get excited locally, and it stopped even that. They told me I'd sweat a lot presently, and had 
fixed an ice pack on the top of my head where the skull was thickest. They had turned out all the lights, but 
had left the door slightly ajar, and had told me that they'd be down the hall somewhere so that if anything 
went wrong I could let out a yell. I lay there in the darkness like an Egyptian mummy. After a while my mind 
began to work, and I discovered that I liked it. It occurred to me that I was probably masochistic or 
something. I set about rationalising it, but of course one always does. I remembered the theories that we all 
have a subconscious longing to be back in the womb that we remember subconsciously how nice and safe and 
warm it was. I remembered poetry about the womb and the grave. There were some distant, ordinary, living, 
human sounds way down the corridor somewhere, but they didn't disturb or concern me. Perhaps they did 
disturb me, for I became acutely conscious again of my jangled nerves. I wanted to turn over, to toss' about in 
the bed. I wanted to put my elbow up under the pillow. I wanted to move my arms. I wanted to scratch my 
forehead. I'd have to yell for help if a fly alighted on my nose. In a little while, the active nervousness 
decreased, but I was conscious of increasing tension. I tried experimentally to break, or stretch my bonds, by 
contracting and straining every muscle. I found that I couldn't loosen them at all, and it was this that had 
excited me and made me like it. I went lax presently and was beginning to sweat. I sweated, time passed, and 
the tension was gone and the jangling nervousness disappeared too, faded slowly as it does under a strong 
soporific. I was soon as peaceful as a four-month foetus. When they came back after a long time and began to 
unwind me, I was still peaceful. And when they went away I turned on my side, stuck my arm up under my 
head, and went to sleep without another movement. I was put to bed that way for five or six successive nights, 
and then Dr Paschall ordered it stopped. He said I liked it too well that it could get to be another habit, like 
dope, veronal or whiskey, and advised me to read La Sdquestrde de Poitiers. Williarn Seabrook, Asylum 
(1935) 
Spread Eagle Cure 
Officially sanctioned or not, violent methods such as the 'Spread Eagle Cure' here described, have stained the 
history of the asylum. It is a term used in all asylums and prisons. A disorderly patient is stripped naked and 
thrown on his back, four men take hold of the limbs and stretch them out at right angles, then the doctor or 
some one of the attendants stands up on a chair or table and pours a number of buckets full of cold water on 
his face until life is nearly extinct, then the patient is removed to his dungeon cured of all diseases; the shock 
is so great it frequently produces death. If all the persons in this commonwealth found intoxicated and not 
able to govern themselves in a proper manner should by LAW RECEIVE SUCH MEDICAL TREATMENT, 
say four buckets full of cold water applied in that way for the first offence, and for the second two more 
added and so on until the desired reform is accomplished, it would do more to prevent crime and 
INTEMPERANCE than any other means. The tax payers would save a vast amount of money collected now 
to support the paupers of every grade in this community. Let a steady stream of water seven or eight feet in 
height fall down directly on the face of the patient, it will have the same effect as if he was held under water 
the same number of feet for the same time; a person cannot breathe when the water is falling down directly in 
his mouth any better than he can ten feet under water; it is a shock to the whole nervous system, and it drives 
the blood from the brain, which has been forced up there in many ways, which causes the patient to lose his 
proper balance of mind. I speak from my own observation on the spot. I have witnessed the most cruel and 
barbarous treatment by a nurse in the hospital at Pine street that could be inflicted on a human being. The 
person was brought to the hospital with the mania a potu, and put into a cell, strapped on an iron bedstead, 
with a hard mattress under him the term familiarly used in the hospital, made into a spread eagle. The 
person is stretched out flat on his back, with a strap around the bedstead, up over the breast of the victim, 
and buckled under the bedstead; his legs are pulled wide apart and strapped to each corner at the foot of the 
bedstead, the arms are pulled out straight from the body, and strapped down under the bedstead, leaving his 
head scarcely room to turn one quarter around; in that position a person was kept three days and three 
nights; on the fourth night, at 9 o'clock, death relieved him of his agony. Ebenezer Haskell, The Trial of 
Ebenezer Haskell (1869) 
Tortures masquerading as treatments 
There are several methods of restraint in use to this day in various institutions, chief among them 'mechanical 
restraint' and so-called chemical restraint.' The former consists in the use of instruments of restraint, namely, 
strait-jackets or camisoles, muffs, straps, mittens, restraint or strong sheets, etc. all of them, except on the 
rarest of occasions, instruments of neglect and torture. Chemical restraint (sometimes called medical 
restraint) consists in the use of temporarily paralysing drugs - hyoscine being the popular 'dose.' By the use of 
such drugs a troublesome patient may be rendered unconscious and kept so for hours at a time. Indeed, very 
troublesome patients (especially when attendants are scarce) are not infrequently kept in a stupefied 
condition for days, or even for weeks but only in institutions where the welfare of the patients is lightly 
regarded. After the supper fight I was left alone in my room for about an hour. Then the assistant physician 
entered with three attendants, including the two who had figured in my farce. One carried a canvas 
contrivance known as a camisole. A camisole is a type of strait-jacket; and a very convenient type it is for 
those who resort to such methods of restraint, for it enables them to deny the use of strait-jackets at all. A 
strait-jacket, indeed, is not a camisole, just as electrocution is not hanging. A camisole, or, as I prefer to 
stigmatise it, a strait-jacket, is really a tight-fitting coat of heavy canvas, reaching from neck to waist, 
constructed, however, on no ordinary pattern. There is not a button on it. The sleeves are closed at the ends, 
and the jacket, having no opening in front, is adjusted and tightly laced behind. To the end of each blind 
sleeve is attached a strong cord. The cord on the right sleeve is carried to the left of the body, and the cord on 
the left sleeve is carried to the right of the body. Both are then drawn tightly behind, thus bringing the arms 
of the victim into a folded position across his chest. These cords are then securely tied. When I planned my 
ruse of the afternoon, I knew perfectly that I should soon find myself in a strait-jacket. The thought rather 
took my fancy, for I was resolved to know the inner workings of the violent ward. Clifford Beers, A Mind that 
Found Itself. An Autobiography (1923) 
Manacles preferable to straitjackets? 
The usual contrivance by which a maniac is restrained is the straitwaistcoat; this confines his arms and 
hands, which are crossed over the region of the stomach, and it is secured by being tied behind. This has been 
generally found a very convenient instrument of restraint, but it has been more convenient to the Keeper than 
advantageous to the Patient. As far as his hands are concerned, he is certainly prevented from doing mischief. 
But the disadvantages which result from the employment of this contrivance overbalance its conveniences. It 
will readily be seen, when a patient is compacted in this instrument of restraint, that he is unable to feed 
himself, and also prevented from wiping the mucus from his nose as it accumulates, and which, if long 
continued, would render him a driveller. He cannot assist himself in his necessary evacuations, and thereby is 
induced to acquire uncleanly habits. He is incapable of scratching to appease any irritation If, in the warm 
season, flies annoy him, he cannot drive them away, and if, from the negligence of the keeper, his person 
should be infested with other insects, he must submit to their painful vexation: and it is always at the 
discretion of the keeper how tightly he may choose to tie it. When several lunatics are confined in a room 
together, the strait-waistcoat is of little security, as it may he unloosed by any patient whose hands are at 
liberty, and I have known several ingenious maniacs who alone have been able to extricate themselves from it. 
It should also he kept in view that a single keeper will have the utmost difficulty in applying the strait-
waistcoat if the patient be refractory, he will then he unable to effect his purpose without his most forcible 
efforts: and should his temper become exasperated in the contest, it is more than probable he will have 
recourse to undue advantages. The other mode of restraining a furious maniac is by metallic manacles, which 
encompass the wrists, and prevent the hands from being separated when the patient may be disposed to 
strike. In my own opinion this mode of security is the most lenient, and subjects the person wearing them to 
none of the privations incurred by the strait-waistcoat. They are sooner and more easily applied, and cannot 
be removed by the assistance of another patient. Where the hands of the patient are in constant motion, 
which often occurs in the active state of the disorder, the friction of the skin against a polished metallic 
substance does not produce excoriation, which shortly takes place when it is rubbed against any linen or 
cotton materials. Considerable opposition has been made to the employment of metallic manacles, but the 
objectors have not condescended to adduce any reasons for their aversion to such mode of security. The sole 
object is to repress the efforts of a violent maniac with the least inconvenience to himself, and to allow him, 
under a restraint which shall be protecting to himself and others, a degree of liberty which enables him to 
assist himself, which exempts him from pressure, and is calculated to obviate those 
Purgatives 
Dr Montagu Lomax blew the whistle on malpractice in British asylums early this century. He was 
particularly shocked by the gross overdosing of strong laxatives, for the sole end of pacifying patients. As 
important as the abuse of strong narcotics and sedatives is the abuse of powerful, such as croton oil. Chloral, 
bromide, and croton oil are the three sheet anchors of all asylum medicinal treatment, and the worst in its 
effects of all three is possibly croton oil. Again I need not repeat what I have already said, that for the vast 
majority of asylum patients astringents of some sort are at times absolutely necessary. Not only does their 
confinement render this necessary, but their mental condition. Nearly all insane persons, whether in asylums 
or not, are habitually constipated. And nothing tends more to clear their heads, improve their tempers, and 
abort or cut short a mental crisis, than the proper regulation of their bowels. This is a commonplace in the 
treatment of all mental patients. Nevertheless, the astringents employed should be properly chosen, medically 
supervised, and their effects carefully noted. They should never be given indiscriminately by the attendants 
and the use of 'stock bottles' and routine treatment by the Ward Charges is to be deprecated. Thus employed, 
astringents are of the greatest service, and many an insane patient owes his recovery in large measure to their 
careful and conscientious use. But when I have said that I have said everything. In most public asylums 
astringents are never carefully prescribed or conscientiously employed. In nine cases out of ten they are never 
personally prescribed by the Medical Officers, but are given at the whim of attendants and as a matter of 
routine. Ordinary astringents thus given do not do much harm. But it is very different with a powerful drug 
like croton-oil, which can only be prescribed by medical order. And I have a very grave indictment to bring 
against the medical usage of most public asylums in this matter. When I first took office I found the use of 
croton-oil almost universal. This powerful purgative was only dispensed in two-minim capsules (a very strong 
dose), and not a day passed without the attendants specifying a certain number of cases in each ward that 
required 'crotons'. In some cases the patients were constipated and really needed an astringent, in most they 
were simply troublesome or refractory, and this was the recognised method of 'taming' them or keeping them 
quiet. No doubt, in many cases, croton-oil is a valuable purgative, it acts quickly and thoroughly, and if the 
patient is young and strong does no harm when occasionally used. But the cases are not carefully selected, the 
drug is used much too frequently and indiscriminately, and, worse still, often as a 'punishment'. It is in the 
latter light that all patients regard it. All insane patients are at times exceedingly troublesome; attendants are 
often harried and at their wits' end to keep them in order; and to give them a 'croton' is such an easy and 
effectual way of quieting them that it is no wonder that attendants advocate it. They are only human after all. 
None the less this routine employment of croton-oil as a means of maintaining order is sheer cruelty, and to 
be sternly deprecated. It is probably responsible for more harm than all the other drugs used in asylums put 
together. I have little doubt in my own mind that it is the indirect cause of more cases of 'colitis' or 'asylum 
dysentery' than is ever suspected. The Board of Control are constantly referring in their Reports to the 
prevalence of 'colitis' in public asylums. I have often wondered whether it has ever occurred to them that 
among the unsuspected causes of this very serious and infectious disease the abuse of croton-oil may be one. 
'Asylum dysentery', of course, is due to a specific organism, but it needs a favourable soil to thrive in, and 
what more favourable soil for its reception and transmission can be imagined than a bowel weakened and 
inflamed by constant and drastic purgation? The reader may be ignorant of the effects of croton-oil 
purgation, for the drug is seldom used in civil life. But I can speak from personal, as well as professional, 
experience. I once took a two-minim capsule myself, for I was anxious to judge of the effects of a drug in such 
constant use. The experience was extremely unpleasant, and confirmed me in my profound objection to the 
drug. The bowels, after a strong croton purge, may be opened ten or even twenty times. Often there is severe 
griping as well, and the patient may be violently sick. I was told by one of the Head Attendants in this asylum 
of a patient being carried off one of the airing-courts into the hospital violently purging at the same time, and 
in a state of complete collapse. This is unusual, no doubt, but it shows the strength and effects of the drug. 
The more usual result is for the patient to be violently purged a dozen times or more, and his vitality lowered 
for twenty-four hours, after which, if young and strong, he recovers and is apparently not much the worse. 
But the reader may imagine its effects upon weak and elderly patients, and I have known attendants 
recommend such for this treatment, and callous and ignorant Medical Officers prescribe it. Even in young 
and vigorous patients its effects should be carefully watched, and it should never be repeated except at 
considerable intervals. For these effects are not simply those of purging, the bowels are not merely opened, 
they are scoured out, and they are not only scoured out but also flayed. As I have stated, this is no guesswork 
on my part, but the result of personal experience. And I would suggest to all Medical Officers of asylums, who 
are in the habit of prescribing croton-oil 'for their patients, that they should repeat my experiment, and learn 
for themselves what its results are like. 'A fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind', and probably, if they took 
my advice, they would think twice before prescribing this drug so indiscriminately. Acting upon this 
principle, I once told an ill-tempered attendant who was always getting into trouble with his refractory cases, 
and recommending them for 'croton treatment', that if I ordered a croton and a jacket for anybody it would 
be for him, as needing it more than the patients did. I shall never forget the man's face. But it had its effect, 
and for a long time afterwards I had no patients recommended for 'crotons' from the ward. 
Montagu Lomax, The Experiences of an Asylum Doctor, with Suggestions for Asylum and Lunacy Law 
Reform (1921) 
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