Non-restraint in the mid nineteenth century was a watchword, a battle-cry, a symbol of that movement for the reform of the treatment of the insane which has been called ‘one of the finest flowers of Victorian philanthropy’. The need for such watchwords and symbols to dispel stagnation and stimulate progress has been well exemplified in our specialty in these times; and, strange as it seems to one of my generation, ‘mechanical restraint’ has even in the last few months again become a subject for discussion.