At this time Mr. Hadwen held the appointment of house surgeon.
Extract from the Governor's Memorandum Book, 1835, July 8th:—
"Resolved,—That this Board, in acknowledging the services of Mr. Hadwen during the period of fifteen months that he held the situation of house surgeon of this institution, feel called upon to express their high approbation of the very small proportion of instances of restraint which have occurred amongst the patients under his care."
Extract from Edinburgh Review, April, 1870:—
"But to Conolly belongs a still higher crown, not merely for his courage in carrying out a beneficent conception on a large scale and on a conspicuous theatre, but for his genius in expanding it. To him, hobbles and chains, handcuffs and muffs, were but material impediments that merely confined the limbs; to get rid of these he spent the best years of his life; but beyond these mechanical fetters he saw there were a hundred fetters to the spirit, which human sympathy, courage, and time only could remove.
"Perfect as was the experiment carried out at Lincoln Asylum, the remoteness of that institution from the great centre of life, and the want of authority in its author, would no doubt have prevented its acceptance for years by the physicians of the great county asylums so long wedded to old habits. It was for some time treated as the freak of an enthusiastic mind, that would speedily go the way of all such new-fangled notions; and no doubt it would, had not an irresistible impulse been given to it by the installation of Dr. Conolly at Hanwell, where, with a noble ardour, he at once set to work to carry out in the then largest asylum in the kingdom the lesson he had learned at Lincoln."
Dr. Conolly's works bearing on mental disorders, in addition to his "Lectures on Insanity," were as follows:—
1. "An Inquiry concerning the Indications of Insanity, with Suggestions for the better Protection and Care of the Insane." 1830.
2. "The Construction and Government of Lunatic Asylums and Hospitals for the Insane." 1847.
3. "The Treatment of the Insane without Mechanical Restraints." 1856.