ter at Law and James Coxe, Esq., Doctor of Medicine: to be her Majesty's Commissioners for the purpose of inquiring into the state of the Lunatic Asylums in Scotland, and also into the present state of the law respecting Lunatics and Lunatic Asylums in that part of the United Kingdom."

In all this, the simple facts of the case tell their own story, perhaps more impressively than with any added comment. Still, if a certain local light and atmosphere can be thrown around the naked facts, they will appeal more vividly to the imagination. This will be attempted in the ensuing chapter. Fortunately, there remain a number of private letters and narratives, which render it possible to do this. Enough now and here, to say that alike in its inception, in the masterly manner in which it was conducted, and in the enthusiasm with which devoted noblemen, statesmen, philanthropists, and men of the highest medical authority were inspired to rally under its banner, the whole achievement was the work of a single woman. On all sides was the entire credit of the feat generously and unreservedly given to Miss Dix. No trace of envy or of national jealousy intervened to deny her the full meed of praise. At the most, it was deplored, as by Sir George Grey on the floor of the House of Commons, that the inauguration of so needed a reform should have been left to the initiative of "a foreigner, and that foreigner a woman, and that woman a dissenter." Perhaps, this frank avowal cannot be more implicitly stated than in the following extract from the speech of Mr. Ellice, M. P. : —

"The Commission was entirely due to Miss Dix's exertion. After visiting the lunatic asylums of England, she proceeded to Scotland, where her suspicions were aroused by the great difficulty she experienced in penetrating into the

lunatic asylums of Scotland; but when she did gain access, she found the unfortunate inmates were in a most miserable condition. She came to London and placed herself in communication with the Secretary of State for the Home Department and with the Duke of Argyll, and at her instance and without any public movement on the subject, a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into the state of the lunatic asylums of Scotland. No one, we feel sure, could read the Report of the Commission without feeling grateful to that lady for having been instrumental in exposing proceedings which were disgraceful to this or to any civilized country." 1

1 Parliamentary Debates, vol. cxiv., p. 1025.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE ROYAL COMMISSION.

TOWARD the attempt in this chapter to revive the memory of some of the local incidents connected with Miss Dix's Scotch experiences, in 1855, the writer of this biography is under great obligation to Dr. Daniel Hack Tuke for a letter, dated Hanwell, England, August, 1888, embodying his own memories of those exciting days. Other letters, partly of Miss Dix her self, and partly of friends who were eye-witnesses of all that was going on, will follow.

"My reminiscences of Miss Dix's visit to this country, in 1855 [writes Dr. Tuke], during which visit she was for some weeks our guest at York, are exceedingly vivid as to the general impression left upon the memory, but I regret to say, that the lapse of time about three and thirty years has to some extent obliterated the details, interesting and fruitful in result as they were, in the cause of the insane which she had so much at heart.

"She was very much out of health, and indeed was confined to bed for some days, but the indomitable energy with which she pursued her mission was extraordinary. She visited most of the institutions for the insane about York, and I remember that on our driving in a hired vehicle to one of them, she showed that her sympathies were not restricted to the insane by remonstrating with the driver for his treatment of the horse.

"It was during Miss Dix's sojourn at York that she determined to ascertain the condition of the insane in Scotland.

That country was justly famed for its excellent chartered asylums,1 the result of philanthropic endowments, and maintained by the payments of a certain number of higher class patients. Miss Dix, however, knew full well from her experience of her own country, that such might be the case, and yet a great mass of poor lunatics be altogether neglected and shamefully treated. And so it proved. Her intrepid raid upon the dwellings where lunatics and idiots were stowed her visits to workhouses and to some asylums away, in which paupers were confined, confirmed her worst misgivings, and her revelations took many of the Scotch themselves by surprise.

"It would have been more fitting had members of the medical profession in Scotland ascertained and protested against this deplorable condition of things, and it is not surprising that when this terrible reformer, yet gentle lady, came from the other side of the Atlantic to set their house in order, the Scotch doctors were disposed to resent the intrusion. To some of these very men it proved, however, a boon, for when an inquiry was instituted, and a Lunacy Commission was established in Edinburgh, they were placed on the Board. At the present day, there is not a doctor in Scotland, interested in the welfare of the insane and in the splendid asylums now in operation in that country, who would not acknowledge the profound debt of gratitude due to Miss Dix for her courage, her pertinacity, and her judicious advice.

"One amusing and characteristic incident of Miss Dix's exposure of the treatment of the insane in some parts of the country will no doubt be referred to in her biography, the sudden departure of the Lord Provost of Edinburgh to London, in order to forestall the American lady's representations to the Home Secretary. Although this was before the racing of rival trains between Edinburgh and London, wit

1 I speak of them as a class. I am aware that some were not in a creditable state, and that all are at the present time in a vastly improved condition.

nessed at the present moment (August, 1888), the two actors in the scene did undertake an exciting race to the English capital, with the result that the lady beat the gentleman, although by a very short space, interviewed the Secretary of State, and produced an impression upon him too powerful to be removed by the assertions of the Lord Provost. Fresh from her great exertions, she returned to York, much exhausted, but sanguine as to the ultimate success of the mission she had so bravely undertaken. .

"You ask me to indicate the salient features of Miss Dix's character as they struck me when I knew her. It seems to me that what I have now written is really the best answer I can give to your request, but I may add a few words. What she told me of having in the early part of her life intended to live mainly to herself, to enjoy literature and art without any higher aims, and of having discovered that this was a fatal mistake, and resolved to devote her energies to the good of man, seems to me the pivot on which her future career revolved. The lines of one of her countrywomen might seem to have been especially composed to describe the change which came over Miss Dix:

"I slept and dreamt that life was beauty,

I woke, and found that life was duty.'

In complete accord with the same idea, I may mention that on the fly-leaf of her own Bible, presented to me when she left our house, she had written Wordsworth's 'Ode to Duty.'

"Her long sustained exertions, undertaken from the highest motives, mark the untiring and irrepressible energy and fortitude which more especially struck me during our personal acquaintance. That these qualities must have exerted enormous influence in inducing others especially young physicians to engage in the humane treatment of the insane can easily be understood.

“The refinement and intrinsic gentleness of Miss Dix had much to do with the esteem and affection entertained