To be shut up in a dark room with an indefinite number of excited maniacs is not a comfortable position.

How long the imprisonment lasted I know not--probably not more than two or three minutes, but it seemed a long time.

At last a light was procured, and the whole affair was explained.

The guardians, not expecting the visit of an inspector at so late an hour, had retired for the night much earlier than usual, and the old porter had put us into the nearest ward until he could fetch a light--locking the door behind us lest any of the lunatics should escape.

The noise had awakened one of the unfortunate inmates of the ward, and her hysterical scream had terrified the others.
By the influence of asylums, hospitals, and similar institutions, the old conceptions of disease, as I have said, are gradually dying out, but the znakharka still finds practice.