Those who have perambulated the corridors of monastic establishments will recognize in the 'ward-system' a repetition of the same general arrangements,--a similarity doubtless due in part to the fact of ancient monasteries having been often appropriated to the residence of the insane, and in part to the old notions of treatment required by the insane, as ferocious individuals, to be shut apart from their fellow-men.
Whilst the ideas of treatment just alluded to prevailed, there was good reason for building corridors and rows of single rooms or cells; but, since they have been exploded, and a humane system of treating the insane established in their place, the perpetuation of the 'ward-system' has been an anomaly and a disastrous mistake. The explanation of the error is to be found in the facts,--that medical men in England, engaged in the care of the insane, have contented themselves with suggesting modifications of the prevailing system,--than which indeed they found no other models in their own country; and that the usual course has been, to seek plans from architects, who, having no personal acquaintance with the requirements of the insane, and the necessary arrangements of asylums, have been compelled to become copyists of the generally-approved principle of construction, which they have only ventured to depart from in non-essential details, and in matters of style and ornamentation.
The literature of asylum architecture in this country evidences the little attention which has been paid to the subject. The only indigenous work on asylum-building--for the few pages on construction in Tuke's introduction to his translation of Jacobi's book, and the still fewer pages in Dr. Brown's book on asylums, published above twenty years ago, do not assume the character of treatises--is the small one by Dr. Conolly, and even this is actually more occupied by a description of internal arrangements in connexion with the management of lunatics, than by an examination of the principles and plans of construction. This bald state of English literature on the subject of construction contrasts strongly with the numerous publications produced on the Continent, and chiefly by asylum physicians, the best-qualified judges of what an asylum ought to be in structure and arrangements.