al
derangement who, although devoid of the depraved instincts of the
morally insane and generally of blameless career up to the moment in
which they are led to commit a crime by some isolated evil impulse, have
a bad influence on the other inmates. Unlike other lunatics, they do not
shrink from the company of others, whom they torment with their violence
and contaminate with that spirit of restlessness and discontent which
distinguished them even before they became insane or criminals. Firm in
the belief that they are always being ill treated and insulted, they
instil these ideas into their companions and suggest thoughts of flight
and revolt, which would never occur to ordinary lunatics, absorbed as
they are by their own world of fancies. The condition of the inmates is
thereby aggravated, and it becomes impossible to accord them that large
measure of freedom advocated by all modern alienists.

To leave these madmen at large would be more dangerous still. Beneath an
appearance of perfect calm and mental lucidity are hidden morbid
impulses, which may give terrible results at some unexpected moment.

All these offenders--insane criminals and the morally insane whose
irresistible tendencies are detrimental to the community--should be
confined in special institutes to be cured, or at any rate segregated
for life. No infamy would attach to their names, because their
irresponsibility would be clearly recognised, and society would be
secure from their attacks.

England was the first country to provide asylums for the criminal
insane. In 1840 a portion of Bedlam was set aside for this purpose.
Fisherton House, a special private asylum of this kind, was opened in
1844, and later others were instituted at Dundrum (Ireland) in 1850, at
Broadmoor in 1863, and at Perth (Scotland) in 1858, to receive criminals
who commit crimes in a state of insanity, or become insane during their
trial, and all prisoners whose state of lunacy or imbecility renders
them unable to conform to the discipline of a prison. Of course
sanguinary and violent scenes often occur in these asylums, where the
pernicious influence this type of lunatic exercises over his
surroundings in ordinary asylums or prisons is multiplied and
intensified a hundred-fold. Conspiracies, almost unknown in common
asylums, and the murder of warders or officials are very common.
Despairing of release and conscious of their irresponsibility, these
wretched beings attack the warde