Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Politics of Innovation

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
London and its Asylums, 1888-1914

Part of the book series: Mental Health in Historical Perspective ((MHHP))

  • 165 Accesses

Abstract

The chapter shifts the gaze away from asylums and explores London County Council’s attempts to develop extra-institutional services for the treatment of the insane. While studies often focus on the medical demand to provide services for acute and curable patients, it demonstrates how this was often driven or mediated by political and social pressures. In particular, it links administrative and medical initiatives to wider party political aspirations for the management of London, and also its diverse and growing institutional population. In addition, it considers investment into the causes of, and cures for insanity in light of the civic pride in the capital’s new political landscape.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The association became the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 1971. Fennell, Phil. 1996. Treatment Without Consent: Law Psychiatry and the Treatment of Mentally Disordered People Since 1845. London: Routledge: 4–5.

  2. 2.

    The Asylum Journal was launched in 1853 and became the Asylum Journal of Mental Science three years later. Fennell, Treatment Without Consent: 5.

  3. 3.

    Scull, The Most Solitary of Afflictions: 247. See also McCrae, Niall and Nolan, Peter. The Story of Nursing in British Mental Hospitals: Echoes from the Corridors. London: Routledge: Michael Finn describes the West Riding Asylum under James Crichton-Browne was a ‘classic example’ of a committee happy to leave the Medical Superintendent to work in a way that he saw fit. Finn, Michael. The West Riding Lunatic Asylum: 66.

  4. 4.

    Hide, Gender and Class: 48.

  5. 5.

    Bartlett, The Poor Law of Lunacy: 18.

  6. 6.

    Cochrane, The Asylum and Its Psychiatry: 265. See also Jones, Edgar, Rahman, Shahina and Woolven, Robin. 2007. The Maudsley Hospital: Design and Strategic Direction, 1923–1939. Medical History 51: 357–78. Allderidge, Patricia. 1991. The Foundation of the Maudsley Hospital. In 150 Years of British Psychiatry, 1841–1991, eds. G.E. Berrios and H. Freeman, 79–88. London: Gaskell.

  7. 7.

    From the earliest days of asylum medicine, it was felt that capturing insanity in its incipient form offered the best chance of recovery and the best chance to prevent individuals becoming long-stay chronic cases.

  8. 8.

    Chris Philo cited in Moran, J. and Topp, L. 2006. Introduction. In Madness, Architecture and the Built Environment, eds. Leslie Topp, James E. Moran and Jonathan Andrews, 1–16. London: Routledge: 7.

  9. 9.

    Wallis, Investigating the Body. Finn, The West Riding Lunatic Asylum.

  10. 10.

    Suzuki, The Politics and Ideology of Non-Restraint: 2.

  11. 11.

    Ibid: 17.

  12. 12.

    LMA, LCC/18.6, London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, January–December 1889, 11 April 1889.

  13. 13.

    Anon. n.d. Robert Brudenell Carter, Royal College of Surgeons. http://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E000859b.htm. Accessed 4 July 2019.

  14. 14.

    Scull, Andrew. 2009. Hysteria: The Disturbing History. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 66. Walk, Alexander. 1976. Medico-Psychologists, Maudsley and the Maudsley Hospital. British Journal of Psychiatry: 128: 19–30.

  15. 15.

    The College of State Medicine. Times, 4 May 1888: 3.

  16. 16.

    Anon. 1889. General Council of Medical Education and Registration, Spring Session 1889. BMJ, 15 June.

  17. 17.

    Sir John (J.T.) Banks, for example, was the Regius Professor of Physic at the University of Dublin, and other held positions relating to their roles as either physicians or surgeons. LCC/CL/PH/01/276. LCC. 1890. Report of the Committee on a Hospital for the Insane.

  18. 18.

    LCC/CL/PH/01/276. 1889. R. Brudenell Carter, Committee on a Hospital for the Insane.

  19. 19.

    Anonymous critic of the North Riding and Bedford asylums writing in 1854, cited in Philo, Chris. 1987. “Fit Localities for an Asylum”: The Historical Geography of the Nineteenth-Century “Mad Business” in England as Viewed Through the Pages of the Asylum Journal. Journal of Historical Geography 13:4: 398–415: 407.

  20. 20.

    Montagu Lomax cited in Hide, Gender and Class: 47. For an example of scientific initiatives in asylums see Wallis, J. 2015. Investigating the Body in the Victorian Asylum. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

  21. 21.

    Anon. 1889. Proposed Hospital for the Insane of London, 9 November.

  22. 22.

    Walk, Medico-Psychologists, Maudsley and the Maudsley Hospital: 26–7.

  23. 23.

    Cochrane, Humane, Economical and Medically Wise: 263.

  24. 24.

    Anon. 1889. The London County Council. The Times, 13 March.

  25. 25.

    Proposed Hospital for the Insane of London. BMJ, 9 November 1889.

  26. 26.

    Anon. 1890. The Proposed Hospital for the Study of Insanity. BMJ, 15 March.

  27. 27.

    Robert Jones added Armstrong to his surname in 1913. I am grateful to Louise Hide for this biographical information. Armstrong Jones, Robert. 1914. The Rational Treatment of Incipient Insanity. BMJ, 7 February.

  28. 28.

    Armstrong Jones, Robert. 1914. The Rational Treatment of Incipient Insanity. BMJ, 7 February.

  29. 29.

    Alienist was term to describe those specialising in the treatment of lunatics, usually in asylums. Anon. 1891. The Second Annual Report of the County of London Lunatic Asylums. BMJ, 3 October. Horsley, V. 1891. The Student and the Practitioner. BMJ, 3 October.

  30. 30.

    Proposed Hospitals for Lunatics in London. BMJ, 23 August 1890: 447. Richard Green, the Medical Superintendent of the Berry Wood Asylum in Northampton was another vocal critic. Greene, Richard. 1889. The Care and Cure of the Insane. The Universal Review 4: 493–508: 504–6.

  31. 31.

    Proposed Hospitals for Lunatics in London. BMJ, 23 August 1890: 447.

  32. 32.

    Armstrong Jones, Robert. 1914. The Rational Treatment of Incipient Insanity. BMJ, 7 February.

  33. 33.

    E.M.L and C.B.L. 1890. Lunacy Law Reform. The Westminster Review 134: 128–42: 12.

  34. 34.

    West Yorkshire Archive Service (hereafter, WYAS), C85/1/12/5. 1890. Report of the Sub-Committee and Medical Superintendent of the West Riding Asylum for the year 1889, West Yorkshire Printing Co, Wakefield: 10.

  35. 35.

    Taylor, Jeremy. 1991. Hospital and Asylum Architecture in England 1840–1914. London, Mansell: 153.

  36. 36.

    Ibid.

  37. 37.

    Hide, Gender and Class: 4.

  38. 38.

    Anon. 1890. The Proposed Hospital for the Study of Insanity. BMJ, 15 March.

  39. 39.

    Cooper pointed to the two large hospitals at St Luke’s and Bethlem; both of which had visiting medical staffs. Anon. 1890. The Proposed Hospital for the Study of Insanity. BMJ, 15 March.

  40. 40.

    Armstrong Jones, Robert. The Rational Treatment of Incipient Insanity. BMJ, 7 February 1914.

  41. 41.

    Greene, The Care and Cure of the Insane: 504–6.

  42. 42.

    Ibid.

  43. 43.

    Taylor, Hospital and Asylum Architecture in England: 153.

  44. 44.

    Hine, George T. 1901. Asylums and Asylum Planning. Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects February: 161–84: 171.

  45. 45.

    LMA, LCC/CL/PH/01/276, Miscellaneous Papers. LCC. 1890. Report of the Committee on a Hospital for the Insane.

  46. 46.

    LMA, LCC/CL/PH/01/276, Miscellaneous Papers. LCC. 1890. Report of the Committee on a Hospital for the Insane.

  47. 47.

    LMA, LCC/CL/PH/01/276, Miscellaneous Papers. LCC. 1890. Report of the Committee on a Hospital for the Insane.

  48. 48.

    London County Council. 1890. A Review of the First Year’s Work of the Council in a Series of Addresses Delivered by the Chairman, the Earl of Rosebery. London: LCC: 30–1.

  49. 49.

    Anon. 1890. The London County Council. The Times, 13 March.

  50. 50.

    Anon. 1890. The Proposed Hospital for the Study of Insanity. BMJ, 15 March.

  51. 51.

    Anon. 1890. The Proceedings of the London County Council. The Times, 13 March.

  52. 52.

    Ibid.

  53. 53.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/565, Signed Minutes, 1889–1891, 1 July 1890.

  54. 54.

    Walk, Medico-Psychologists, Maudsley and the Maudsley: 27.

  55. 55.

    Cochrane, Humane, Economical and Medically Wise: 264.

  56. 56.

    LMA, LCC/ 26.21, Annual Reports for LCC Asylums Committee for 1889–1892, The Second Annual Report of the Asylums Committee of the London County Council, for the year ending 31 March 1891.

  57. 57.

    Brudenell Carter, R. The London County Council. The Times, 6 January.

  58. 58.

    Ibid.

  59. 59.

    Brudenell Carter, R. 1892. The London County Council. The Times, 6 January.

  60. 60.

    Anon. 1892. County Council and Organization. The Times, 6 January.

  61. 61.

    Ibid.

  62. 62.

    Anon. 1905. The London County Council and the Treatment of Insanity. BMJ, 5 November 1904.

  63. 63.

    Anon. 1905. The Treatment of Incipient Insanity. BMJ, 4 March.

  64. 64.

    Brudenell Carter, R. 1904. Insanity and the London County Council. The Times, 31 October 1904.

  65. 65.

    Anon. 1892. Back to Vestrydom? The Speaker, 9 January.

  66. 66.

    Ibid.

  67. 67.

    Only part of Martineau’s letter was published by the Spectator on the grounds that the magazine ‘was compelled by reasons of space’ to do so. ‘Does he think’, the editor asked, ‘his committee manages more institutions than the Local Government Board does?’ Martineau, P.M. 1892. London County Council. The Spectator, 16 January.

  68. 68.

    Benn, J. Williams. 1892. The Internal Working of the London County Council. The Times, 7 January. Carter explained that once he realised the meetings were in the morning he withdrew from the Committee. Brudenell Carter, R. 1892. The London County Council. The Times, 9 January.

  69. 69.

    Benn, J. Williams. 1892. The Internal Working of the London County Council. The Times, 7 January.

  70. 70.

    Anon. 1890. The Proposed Hospital for the Study of Insanity. BMJ, 15 March.

  71. 71.

    Ball and Sunderland. An Economic History of London, 1800–1914: 410.

  72. 72.

    Ibid: 377.

  73. 73.

    Young, Local Politics and the Rise of Party: 35–7.

  74. 74.

    BI 228/10. 1898. Fabian Society, Questions for London County Councillors. Pennybacker, The Millennium by Return of Post: 140.

  75. 75.

    LSE, JS203–211. Webb, Sidney. 1895. Six Years’ Work on the London County Council: 7.

  76. 76.

    During this period the Fabians lobbied for ‘municipal reform’. This should not be confused by the same phrase adopted by the Moderates later in the period as their party name. BI P3008, Fabian Society. 1890. Questions for Reform Candidates. BI 229/12. Davies, A. Emil. 1937. The LCC 1889–1937, a Historical Sketch: 6.

  77. 77.

    Windscheffel, 72.

  78. 78.

    BI 230/4. Baumann, Arthur A.C. 1890. The London County Council. The Universal Review: 493–502: 493.

  79. 79.

    Tyler, Paul. 2007. Labour’s Lost Leader: The Life and Politics of Will Crook. London: Tauris Academic Studies: 44–5. Gillespie has shown that the revival of interest Progressive municipalisation, after the 1907 election defeat came in 1915 with the formation of the London Labour Party and its post-war revival of the old Progressive slogan of ‘Home Rule for London’. Gillespie, James. 1989. Municipalism, Monopoly and Management: The Demise of Socialism in one County, 1918–1933. In Politics and the People of London, The London County Council 1889–1965, ed. Andrew Saint, 103–26. London: Hambledon Press: 103, 108.

  80. 80.

    LMA, LCC/18.6, London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, January–December 1893, 20 June 1893.

  81. 81.

    Anon. 1898. London Awake. Reynold’s Newspaper, 27 February. LMA, LCC/18.6, London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, January–June 1894, 5 June 1894, 19 June 1894.

  82. 82.

    LSE, Coll Misc 904. London Reform Union. 1896. The County Council and the Vestries: The Two Partners in London Government.

  83. 83.

    Young, Local Politics and the Rise of Party: 54–9. Smellie, A History of Local Government London: 178. See also Davies, Local Government 1850–1920: 51.

  84. 84.

    LSE, Coll Misc 904. n.d. How to Reform London Government, Progressive Leaflet 20.

  85. 85.

    LMA, ACC/1632/001, Minutes of the Progressive Party of the London County Council, 1890–1895.

  86. 86.

    LSE, F35/41. c. 1905. Radford, G.H. The Story of London County Council 1901–4: 1.

  87. 87.

    Anon. 1897. Young Men in Public Life. BMJ, 4 September.

  88. 88.

    Walk, Medico-Psychologists, Maudsley and the Maudsley: 19–30.

  89. 89.

    Later discussions included the expectation that Receiving Houses would include an Out-Patients’ Clinic. Some already existed in other parts of the country but their growth followed the introduction of the Mental Treatment Act in 1930. LMA, LCC/MIN/710, Accommodation Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1896–1905, 25 January 1897, 20 October 1897. LMA, LCC/18.6, London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, September–December 1902, 21 October 1902.

  90. 90.

    It was envisaged that magistrates and medical offices would be on hand to sign any certificates required under the lunacy legislation and that an ambulance service would be provided to ferry people from their homes to the Receiving House and on to an asylum where necessary. LMA, LCC/MIN/568, Signed Minutes, 1897–1899, 14 December 1897.

  91. 91.

    LMA, LCC/18.6, London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, September–December 1899, 10 October 1899, 11 July 1899. LMA, LCC/18.6, London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, September–December 1902, 21 October 1902.

  92. 92.

    The Lancashire County (Lunatic Asylums and Other Powers) Act, 1891 enabled the convening of a Board consisting of Councillors and also representatives of the various boroughs. LCC/CL/PH/01/276, Partridge, R.W. 1893. Report of the Clerk. London: LCC. See Also Hayes, Lancashire Public Asylums Provision: 84.

  93. 93.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/710, Accommodation Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1896–1905, 11 May 1898.

  94. 94.

    Cochrane, Humane, Economical and Medically Wise: 253.

  95. 95.

    Ibid.

  96. 96.

    In the year ending 31 March 1898, 6599 individuals were alleged to be insane in the County of London. 6280 of them were removed to a Parish Workhouse or Infirmary. Of those, 3573 (54%) were certified for removal to an asylum with the remainder being discharged from the workhouse as not certifiable. Of the 3573 certified, only 26 were taken to an asylum from their home and in every other case, each patient, unless they were already an inmate was taken to the asylum via the workhouse. LMA, LCC/MIN/568, Signed Minutes, 1897–1899, 11 July 1899.

  97. 97.

    LMA, BBG/423, St Olave’s Union Committee Reports, 1892–1893, 2 January 1893, 4 June 1893.

  98. 98.

    LMA, LCC/CL/PH/01/276, Marsh, T.A. 1898. Scheme of London Asylums Committee for Providing Receiving Houses &c., Fulham Union.

  99. 99.

    LCC/MIN/710, Accommodation Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1896–1905, 2 July 1902.

  100. 100.

    Of the 29 Unions in London, 15 supported the scheme, 10 did not and 4 did not reply to the Clerk’s letter. LCC/MIN/710, Accommodation Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1896–1905, 18 July 1898.

  101. 101.

    LCC/CL/PH/01/276, Marsh, T.A. 1898. Scheme of London Asylums Committee for Providing Receiving Houses &c., Fulham Union.

  102. 102.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/568, Signed Minutes, 1897–1899, 11 July 1899.

  103. 103.

    LCC/CL/PH/01/276, Marsh, T.A. 1898. Scheme of London Asylums Committee for Providing Receiving Houses &c., Fulham Union.

  104. 104.

    Of the 29 Unions in London, 15 supported the scheme, 10 did not and 4 did not reply to the Clerk’s letter. LCC/MIN/710, Accommodation Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1896–1905, 18 July 1898.

  105. 105.

    This included improvements to salaries and accommodation for nursing staff. LMA, BBG/514/001 Letters from Government Departments 1890–1892, Letter from LGB to the Guardians of St Olave’s Union, 10 April 1890. See also Bartlett, Poor Law of Lunacy.

  106. 106.

    For example, the Hammersmith Board of Guardians explained that if the Receiving Houses plan was dropped, they would be ‘at once compelled to provide Lunatic Wards for their parish’. LMA, LCC/MIN/572, Signed Minutes, June 1904–November 1905, 14 November 1905. See also LMA, LCC/MIN/568, Signed Minutes, 1897–1899, 11 July 1899. Holborn Guardian expressed strong opposition as did the Guardians of Bloomsbury, Wandsworth, Fulham, Islington, Westminster, St George’s and Hackney. LMA, LCC/576, Signed Minutes, March 1909–July 1910, 12 July 1910.

  107. 107.

    LMA, LCC/18.6, London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, May–August 1899, 18 July 1899.

  108. 108.

    The Lord Chancellor was a member of the Cabinet and mainly responsible for judicial matters. Halsbury (Conservative) was well known for the appointment of judges on party political grounds, rather than on merit. Woodhouse, Diana. 2001. The Office of Lord Chancellor. Oxford: Hart Publishing: 139. LCC/MIN/569, Signed Minutes, 1899–1901, 13 March 1900.

  109. 109.

    The 1900 bill was one of six attempted reforms of the Lunacy Laws that failed in the period between 1890 and 1914. Takabayashi, Akinobu. 2017. Surviving the Lunacy Act of 1890: English Psychiatrists and Professional Development During the Early Twentieth Century. Medical History 61:2: 246–269. LCC/MIN/569, Signed Minutes, 1899–1901, 13 March 1900. LCC/MIN/570, Signed Minutes, 1901–1902, 26 March 1901, 6 May 1902. LMA, LCC/18.6, London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, September–December 1902, 21 October 1902.

  110. 110.

    LMA, LCC/18.6, London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, September–December 1902, 21 October 1902.

  111. 111.

    LMA, LCC/18.6, London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, September–December 1902, 4 November 1902.

  112. 112.

    LMA, LCC/18.6, London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, September–December 1902, 21 October 1902.

  113. 113.

    It noted that land in south-eastern and south-western districts would cost £2000–£3000, while land in northern and eastern districts would cost £8000–£10,000 per acre. LMA, LCC/18.6, London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, September–December 1902, 4 November 1902.

  114. 114.

    LMA, LCC/18.6, London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, September–December 1902, 4 November 1902. Anon. 1902. Receiving House for the Insane. BMJ, 8 November.

  115. 115.

    LMA, LCC/18.6, London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, September–December 1902, 4 November 1902.

  116. 116.

    LMA, LCC/18.6, London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, September–December 1902, 9 December 1902. LMA, LCC/18.6, London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, January–June 1903, 3 March 1903.

  117. 117.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/572, Signed Minutes, June 1904–November 1905, 11 July 1905.

  118. 118.

    LMA, LCC/18.6, London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, January–June 1903, 10 March 1903.

  119. 119.

    LMA, LCC/18.6, London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, July–December 1903, 3 November 1903.

  120. 120.

    LMA, LCC/18.6, London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, September–November 1905, 28 November 1905.

  121. 121.

    LMA, LCC/18.6, London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, December 1905, 12 December 1905.

  122. 122.

    Standing Order 89 stated that any suspension of the Councils Standing Orders had to be approved by three quarters of the Councillors present. LMA, GLC/DG/AE/ROL/82/001, LCC Standing Orders, 1906–1907: 89, 161.

  123. 123.

    LMA, LCC/18.6, London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, September–November 1905, 28 November 1905.

  124. 124.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/574, Signed Minutes, February 1907–February 1908, 14 May 1907.

  125. 125.

    Jones, Mental Health and Social Policy, 1845–1959: 103–4.

  126. 126.

    LMA, LCC/576, Signed Minutes, March 1909–July 1910: 10 May 1909.

  127. 127.

    Ibid: 8 February 1910.

  128. 128.

    Ibid: March 1909–July 1910, 12 April 1910, 12 July 1910, 26 July 1910, 13 December 1910.

  129. 129.

    Brudenell Carter, R. 1904. Insanity and the London County Council. The Times, 31 October.

  130. 130.

    Jones, Robert. 1904. Insanity and the London County Council. The Times, 8 November. Collins, William J. 1904. Insanity and the London County Council. The Times, 22 November.

  131. 131.

    Collins, William J. 1904. Insanity and the London County Council. The Times, 22 November.

  132. 132.

    Doyle, The Politics of Hospital Provision: 143.

  133. 133.

    Anon. 1899. The Pathology of Insanity. BMJ, 18 February.

  134. 134.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/747, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1892–1901, 8 November 1892.

  135. 135.

    Ibid.

  136. 136.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/747, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1892–1901, 3 March 1893.

  137. 137.

    LCC/CL/PH/01/276, Report of the Special Sub-Committee appointed to consider the appointment of a Pathologist, LCC, 1894.

  138. 138.

    Wallis, Investigating the Body: 144.

  139. 139.

    Anon. 1894. Pathology of Insanity. BMJ, 8 September.

  140. 140.

    Anon. 1893. The London County Council and the County Lunatic Asylum. BMJ, 22 July 1893.

  141. 141.

    Forty-fifth Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, 1891: 199. Forty-sixth Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, 1892: 213. Forty-seventh Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, 1893: 212. Sixty-second Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, 1908: 17–18.

  142. 142.

    Forty-fifth Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, 1891: 199.

  143. 143.

    Sixty-second Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, 1908: 17–18.

  144. 144.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/747, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1892–1901, 3 March 1893.

  145. 145.

    Ibid.

  146. 146.

    Ibid.

  147. 147.

    Ibid.

  148. 148.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/747, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1892–1901, 18 January 1895.

  149. 149.

    Anon. The Pathology of Insanity. BMJ, 18 February 1899.

  150. 150.

    Wallis, Investigating the Body: 169.

  151. 151.

    Concerned groups included the Electoral and Church Anti-Vivisection Leagues, and the International Anti-Vivisection Council. Mr. W.L. Humfrey wrote to the Asylums Committee ‘protesting against such a wicked appointment’ and Mrs Annie Goff raised concerns about the potential use of vivisection. LMA, LCC/MIN/747, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1892–1901, 1 May 1895, 7 May 1897. LMA, LCC/MIN/748, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1901–1908, 22 April 1902.

  152. 152.

    Scull, Madness and Civilisation: 262–3.

  153. 153.

    Anon. 1894. Lunacy in the Metropolis. BMJ, 28 July.

  154. 154.

    LMA, LCC 26.21. The Fourth Annual Report of the Asylums Committee of the London County Council, for the year ending 31 March 1893.

  155. 155.

    Anon. Pathological Laboratory at Claybury. BMJ, November 1893.

  156. 156.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/747, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1892–1901, 9 March 1894.

  157. 157.

    LMA, LCC 26.21. The Fifth Annual Report of the Asylums Committee of the London County Council, for the year ending 31 March 1894.

  158. 158.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/747, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1892–1901, 9 March 1894.

  159. 159.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/747, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1892–1901, 18 December 1894.

  160. 160.

    Fiftieth Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, 1896: 293.

  161. 161.

    Ibid.

  162. 162.

    Fifty-seventh Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, 1903: 327.

  163. 163.

    LMA, LCC 26.21. Report of the Pathologist, April 1896. The Lancashire County Asylum at Whittingham also appointed a pathologist in 1890, with the then superintendent at the West Riding Asylum, William Bevan-Lewis, claiming they had followed ‘our’ example. WYAS, C85/1/13/5, Medical Director’s Journal 1888–1894, 20 June 1890.

  164. 164.

    Crichton-Browne had published or influenced the publication of six volumes of the ‘West Riding Medical Reports’. Sixty-second Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, 1908: 16.

  165. 165.

    The pioneers cited were ‘Bevan Lewis, Batty Tuke and others in this country; and Gressinger, Westphal, von Gudden and others abroad.’ Anon. 1899. The Pathology of Insanity. BMJ, 18 February. Fifty-fourth Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, 1900: 317.

  166. 166.

    BL, London County Council Staff Gazette (1900), 1:1: 3.

  167. 167.

    Sixty-second Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, 1908: 68.

  168. 168.

    Along with the work undertaken by Mott at Claybury, the research taking place include that at the Lancashire Asylums at Lancaster and Prestwich, the Essex County Asylum at Brentwood and the Sunderland Borough Asylum. Sixty-second Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, 1908: 69.

  169. 169.

    Sixty-third Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, 1909: 80–95.

  170. 170.

    Sixty-second Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy to the Lord Chancellor, 1908: 16. Sixty-third Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, 1909: 65.

  171. 171.

    Anon. 1899. The Pathology of Insanity. BMJ, 18 February.

  172. 172.

    Ibid.

  173. 173.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/748, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1901–1908, 7 November 1905.

  174. 174.

    Ibid.

  175. 175.

    Strange, Julie-Marie. 2005. Death, Grief and Poverty in Britain 1870–1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 8.

  176. 176.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/748, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1901–1908, 20 November 1905.

  177. 177.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/747, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1892–1901, 1 October 1895.

  178. 178.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/748, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1901–-1908, 5 April 1906.

  179. 179.

    LCC/MIN/569, Signed Minutes, 1899–1901, 14 November 1899.

  180. 180.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/748, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1901–1908, 16 October. Anon. 1909. George Joseph Cooper, MRCS, LAS. BMJ, 16 October.

  181. 181.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/748, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1901–1908, 3 December 1902.

  182. 182.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/748, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1901–1908, 4 March 1903, 6 May 1903, 24 June 1903.

  183. 183.

    LMA, LCC/PH/01/276, Bryan, F. 1905. Report of the Medical Superintendent on Dr Mott’s Report on the Itch, LCC.

  184. 184.

    LCC/MIN/569, Signed Minutes, 1899–1901, 13 November 1900, 11 December 1900.

  185. 185.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/747, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1892–1901, 1 October 1895.

  186. 186.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/748, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1901–1908, 24 April 1904.

  187. 187.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/747, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1892–1901, 1 May 1895.

  188. 188.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/747, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1892–1901, 1 October 1895.

  189. 189.

    When Mott asked if his niece could work in the laboratory to help with the preparation and drawing of microscopic specimens, the sub-committee agreed to it ‘readily’. LMA, LCC/MIN/747, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1892–1901, 27 January 1899. LMA, LCC/MIN/748, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1901–1908, 2 December 1903.

  190. 190.

    I am grateful to Louise Hide for the details of Jones’s wedding. LMA, LCC/MIN/748, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1901–1908, 2 December 1903.

  191. 191.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/748, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1901–1908, 24 April 1904.

  192. 192.

    LMA, LCC/PH/01/276, Cooper, G.J. and Mott, F.W. 1904. Interim Report on Medical Statistics, LCC.

  193. 193.

    Ibid.

  194. 194.

    Wallis, Investigating the Body: 207. See also Jackson, The Borderland of Imbecility: Chapter 3.

  195. 195.

    Wallis, Investigating the Body: 207.

  196. 196.

    Pennybacker, A Vision for London: 4, 78. Pennybacker also describes the educational work of the Council as ‘eugenic work’. Pennybacker, The Millennium by Return of Post: 146. Fee, Elizabeth and Porter, R. 1992. Public Health, Preventive Medicine and Professionalization: England and America in the Nineteenth Century. In Medicine in Society, ed. Andrew Wear, 249–76. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 271. See also Pick, Daniel. 1989. Faces of Degeneration: A European Disorder, c. 1848–1918. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  197. 197.

    Hide, Gender and Class in English Asylums: 129–30.

  198. 198.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/759, Stansfield, T.E.K. Hereditary and Insanity. See also Faulks, E. 1911. The Sterilisation of the Insane. JMS, 57. January. Clarke, Geoffrey. 1912. Sterilisation from the Eugenical Standpoint. JMS, 58. Daniel, A.W. 1912. Some Statistics About the Sterilisation of the Insane. JMS, 58.

  199. 199.

    Hide, Gender and Class in English Asylums: 132. LMA, LCC/MIN/575, Signed Minutes, March 1908–February 1909, 16 June 1908, 14 July 1908.

  200. 200.

    Hide, Gender and Class in English Asylums: 130.

  201. 201.

    Thomson, Social Policy and the Management of the Problem of Mental Deficiency: 137.

  202. 202.

    Harrison, J.F.C. 1990. Late Victorian Britain 1875–1901. London: Fontana Press: 211.

  203. 203.

    Ibid.

  204. 204.

    LSE, J2/210. Anon. 1909. London Under the Moderates. London: Alexander and Shepherd Ltd.

  205. 205.

    Pennybacker, The Millennium by Return of Post: 140.

  206. 206.

    Schneer, London 1900: The Imperial Metropolis. New Haven: Yale University Press: 166.

  207. 207.

    Pennybacker, The Millennium by Return of Post: 140.

  208. 208.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/748, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1901–1908, 9 June 1904.

  209. 209.

    Anon. 1904. The London County Council and the Treatment of Insanity. BMJ, 5 November.

  210. 210.

    Ibid.

  211. 211.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/748, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1901–1908, 9 June 1904.

  212. 212.

    Ibid: 25 March 1903.

  213. 213.

    Ibid: 9 June 1904.

  214. 214.

    Anon. 1909. George Joseph Cooper. BMJ, 16 October.

  215. 215.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/748, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1901–1908, 25 March 1903.

  216. 216.

    LMA, LCC/MIN/748, Pathologist Sub-Committee Minute Book, 1901–1908, 11 July 1905, 5 April 1906, 8 July 1907.

  217. 217.

    Cochrane, Humane, Economical and Medically Wise: 265.

  218. 218.

    Thomson, Social Policy and the Management of the Problem of Mental Deficiency: 138–9.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Music, Humanities & Media, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK

    Robert Ellis

Authors
  1. Robert Ellis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robert Ellis .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Ellis, R. (2020). The Politics of Innovation. In: London and its Asylums, 1888-1914. Mental Health in Historical Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44432-7_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44432-7_4

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-44431-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-44432-7

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation