"I have heard of these penitences in Italian churches, and also that half of those who go there, do not really scourge themselves; but here, where there is such perfect concealment, there seems no motive for deception. Incredible as it may seem, this awful penance continued, without intermission, for half an hour! If they scourged each other, their energy might be less astonishing. "We could not leave the church, but it was perfectly sickening; and, had I not been able to take hold of the Señora -'s hand, and feel something human beside me, I could have fancied myself transported into a congregation of evil spirits. Now and then, but very seldom, a suppressed groan was heard, and occasionally the voice of the monk, encouraging them by ejaculations, or by short passages from Scripture. Sometimes the organ struck up, and the poor wretches in a faint voice tried to join in the Miserere. The sound of the scourging is indescribable. At the end of half an hour, a little bell was rung, and the voice of the monk was heard, calling upon them to desist; but such was their enthusiasm, that the horrible lashing continued louder and fiercer than ever.

"In vain he entreated them not to kill themselves; and assured them that Heaven would be satisfied, and that human nature could not endure beyond a certain point. No answer, but the loud sound of the scourges, which are many of them of iron, with sharp points that enter the flesh. At length, as if they were perfectly exhausted, the sound grew fainter, and, little by little, ceased altogether. We then got up in the dark, and, with great difficulty, groped our way in the pitch darkness through the galleries and down the stairs, till we reached the door, and had the pleasure of feeling the fresh air again. They say that the church floor is frequently covered with blood after one of these penances, and that a man died the other day in consequence of his wounds. "I then went to the house of the Minister, where there was a réunion, and where I found the company comfortably engaged in eating a very famous kind of German salad, composed of herrings, smoked salmon, cold potatoes, and apples, (salmagundi?) and drinking hot punch. After the cold, darkness, and horrors of the church, this formed rather a contrast; and it was some time before I could shake off the disagreeable impression left by the desagravios, and join in the conversation." pp. 407-409.

Such are the transitions from scenes of penance to scenes of pleasure in this motley capital, where merry mummeries and mortifications, fastings and fêtes, chase one another in continual circle, converting the city alternately into a carnival VOL. LVI. NO. 118.

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scene, and a house of correction. This may be well for the stranger, who sees novelty succeeding to novelty, while he is present at one long but ever-shifting spectacle. But for the people, thus eternally occupied with the pantomime rehearsal of the events of Scripture history, instead of the real and practical duties of the life before them, their days pass away in a round of busy idleness, in which ceremony takes place of conduct, and empty form of substance. With all their show of penitence and voluntary penance, the higher classes of Mexico are as frivolous, and the lower as corrupt, -probably more corrupt, than in any capital in Christendom.

But we are already exceeding our limits, which we regret will allow us no room for further quotation. Enough has been done in this way to show our readers the quality of the book. We have given, however, but a faint idea of the richness and singular variety of its topics, which, far from being confined to the capital, embrace various excursions in the environs and in distant parts of the country, two of them of a bold and singularly romantic character, made on horseback for the distance of near a thousand miles. The work contains, moreover, the account of two stormy revolutions in the capital, the stirring events of which quicken the interest of the narrative, and prevent any of the languor stealing over it, which might grow out of a picture, too prolonged, it might be, of unbroken tranquillity.

The present volumes make no pretensions to enlarge the boundaries of our knowledge in respect to the mineral products of the country, its geography, its statistics, or, in short, to physical or political science. These topics have been treated with more or less depth by the various travellers, who have written since the great publications of Humboldt. We have had occasion to become tolerably well acquainted with their productions. And we may safely assert, that for spirited portraiture of society, a society unlike any thing existing in the Old World, or the New,- for picturesque delineation of scenery, for richness of illustration and anecdote, and for the fascinating graces of style, no one of them is to be compared with "Life in Mexico."

S. M. Howe,

ART. VII. — 1. What shall we do with the Insane? By EDWARD JARVIS. Louisville, Ky.

2. American Hospital Reports.

Ir has always been a defect of the social system, that a part of the population is dependent upon the rest for the means of subsistence. It is as true in the nineteenth, as it was in the first century, "The poor ye have always with you"; and the question, which has been asked by statesmen of all ages and of all countries, "What can best be done with them?" remains as yet without a satisfactory answer. In its early stages, society disposes of the question summarily, ridding itself of the old and the helpless by violence or exposure; but with advancing civilization better feelings are developed, and men revolt at such treatment of the unfortunate. They preserve the feeble in life, and pauperism appears.

The first efforts for the relief of the dependent, are generally the dictates of blind feeling, unenlightened by intellect, and therefore they often fail of their object. Hence we see private charity, and charitable institutions, often disappointing the hopes of the benevolent; and vast and expensive systems for the relief of the poor are entailed upon society, which are of doubtful efficacy, if they do not act as positive premiums upon pauperism. At any rate, so many difficulties surround the subject, and so manifest has been the failure of public systems for the support of the poor, that many wise and good men question their expediency; and they adduce powerful arguments to show that society, as such, should never step forth to relieve want, which could have been foreseen and provided against, or to assume responsibilities and cares, which should devolve upon individuals. It is maintained, and with much plausibility, that private charity is the natural source of comfort and support for the suffering and the needy, and that it would be sufficient for all purposes, if society, by assuming the charge of the poor, did not prevent its exercise, and thus check its developement. Be this as it may, it is certain, that there are many cases of want or suffering, which in the present state of society could not have been foreseen or avoided by the victims; which private charity is not competent to relieve; and the care of which certainly

devolves upon society, especially as some of them are caused by its defective organization. Hence arises the obligation of society to provide for, and instruct helpless orphans, the blind, and the deaf-mutes, and to take care of the insane. It is of this last class that we propose to say a few words in the following article.

Of all the ills which flesh is heir to, there is perhaps none so dreadful as insanity. Utter poverty, hideous deformity, mutilation of limbs, deafness, blindness, all these, sad as they are, leave alive the human affections, and admit the consolations of sympathy and love; while insanity not only makes man utterly dependent upon others for the supply of his physical wants, but it strips him of the noblest attributes of humanity. It so utterly sears his heart, that no affection for another can grow upon it, no love from others can penetrate within it; and the unhappy victim sinks into apathetic indifference to common decency, or is so excited as to crush the life out of the mother who bore him, as coolly as he would trample upon a worm.

Of insane persons and idiots, there are, in the United States, according to the census of 1840, 17,434; in New England 3,576; and in Massachusetts, 1,271. Of these last, 644 are at public charge, and 627 at private charge. But, appalling as this statement is, it is unfortunately short of the truth, for the Pauper Abstract, published by the State authority in the same year, gave 887 as the number at public charge in Massachusetts. The cause of the discrepancy is clear; the town officers, besides a personal acquaintance with all the individuals in their neighbourhood, have the means of knowing, from the town records, how many insane are at public charge; while the United States Marshals, embracing larger sections, and taking hearsay evidence, miss those cases in which persons are ashamed to own they have an insane relative. The same discrepancy has occurred in other States, whence local returns have been made; so that we are safe in putting down the insane and idiots of Massachusetts, who are at public charge, to be at least 887.* There are no

*It is to be regretted, that the United States census is vitiated by carelessness in regard to the statistics of insanity. For instance, the number of insane, among colored people of certain towns, is put down as greater than the whole number of colored people in the same towns; this is the case with nine towns in Maine, twelve in Michigan, one in lowa, ten in Illinois, five

means of testing the accuracy of the United States census in regard to the number of those at private charge, which it states to be 627; but, the same causes for concealment operating still more strongly than in the case of the paupers, we may safely add to it in the same proportion, and compute the real number to be at least 862; which, added to that of the paupers, gives us the number of 1749 insane and idiots in this Commonwealth.

What is the duty of the State towards these its unfortunate children? With regard to the paupers it is clear and imperative; it is what should be the duty of every Christian government, to provide the best means for the cure of the curable, and to take kind care of the incurable. This duty of society, besides being urged by every consideration of humanity, will be seen to be more imperative if we consider that insanity is in many cases the result of imperfect or vicious social institutions and observances. Most writers assert, that insanity is not known among savage nations; but, without admitting this to be strictly true, it cannot be denied that civilization, in its progress, is rife with causes which over-excite individuals, and result in the loss of mental equilibrium. We have hardly space to allude to all of these; but among them are revolutions, party strifes, unwise and capricious legislation, causing commercial speculations and disasters; false standards of worth and rank; undue encouragement of the propensities and passions; social rivalry; social intemperance; some fashions and conventional usages; religious and political excitement. These, and a variety of other causes, for which society is in fault, are productive of a large proportion of the cases of insanity which exist in its bosom. But if to these we add the still larger number, which arise from ignorance of the natural laws, which ignorance society should enlighten by providing proper public instruction, we can fairly lay at its door almost all of the cases of insanity which occur.

There is, of course, some uncertainty about the proportion

in Indiana, thirty-seven in Ohio; seven in Massachusetts; one in Connecticut; three in Vermont; sixteen in New York; and nine in New Hampshire; nevertheless, the sums total of the whole State, are less than the more careful returns by local authorities of pauper statistics. We have found some errors also, though not important ones, in the return of blind persons.