"Hints for Introducing an Improved Mode of Treating the Insane in the Asylum"; read before the Governors of the New York Hospital on the 4th of Fourth-month, 1815. By Thomas Eddy, one of the Asylum Committee. New York, 1815. Reprinted Bloomingdale Hospital Press, 1916.
The following anecdotes illustrate the observation before made, that maniacs frequently retain the power of reasoning to a certain extent; and that the discerning physician may oftimes successfully avail himself of the remains of this faculty in controlling the aberrations of his patient:—A patient in the Pennsylvania Hospital, who called his physician his father, once lifted his hand to strike him. "What!" said his physician, (Dr. Rush), with a plaintive tone of voice, "Strike your father?" The madman dropped his arm, and instantly showed marks of contrition for his conduct. The following was related to me by Samuel Coates, President of the Pennsylvania Hospital:—maniac had made several attempts to set fire to the Hospital: upon being remonstrated with, he said, "I am a salamander"; "but recollect," said my friend Coates, "all the patients in the house are not salamanders;" "That is true," said the maniac, and never afterwards attempted to set fire to the Hospital.