Report of the Metropolitan Commissioners in Lunacy - 1844 First Edition
A fascinating and rare First edition - another copy is held by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
Written in 1844 by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury KG, a British Tory politician, philanthropist, and social reformer. A social reformer who was called the "Poor Man's Earl", he campaigned for better working conditions, reform to lunacy laws, education and the limitation of child labour.
This first Report ... presents us with a full exposition of the state of lunacy in England and Wales ... not merely a report on asylums but an inverted pyramid the apex of which was asylum inspection and the base of which a survey of the practice of psychiatry among all classes and institutions ...
In July 1845, Ashley sponsored two Lunacy Acts, 'For the Regulation of lunatic Asylums' and 'For the better Care and Treatment of Lunatics in England and Wales'. They originated in the Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy which he had commended to Parliament the year before and is the contents of this book.
These Acts consolidated and amended previous lunacy laws, providing better record keeping and more strict certification regulations to ensure patients against unwarranted detention. They also ordered, instead of merely permitting, the construction of country lunatic asylums and establishing an ongoing Lunacy Commission with Ashley as its chairman.
A fascinating account of a taboo part of our Nation’s Social History.
Publication/Creation
London : Bradbury and Evans, 1844.
Physical description
291 pages, 1 unnumbered folded leaf of plates ; 24 cm
A fascinating and rare First edition - another copy is held by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
Written in 1844 by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury KG, a British Tory politician, philanthropist, and social reformer. A social reformer who was called the "Poor Man's Earl", he campaigned for better working conditions, reform to lunacy laws, education and the limitation of child labour.
This first Report ... presents us with a full exposition of the state of lunacy in England and Wales ... not merely a report on asylums but an inverted pyramid the apex of which was asylum inspection and the base of which a survey of the practice of psychiatry among all classes and institutions ...
In July 1845, Ashley sponsored two Lunacy Acts, 'For the Regulation of lunatic Asylums' and 'For the better Care and Treatment of Lunatics in England and Wales'. They originated in the Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy which he had commended to Parliament the year before and is the contents of this book.
These Acts consolidated and amended previous lunacy laws, providing better record keeping and more strict certification regulations to ensure patients against unwarranted detention. They also ordered, instead of merely permitting, the construction of country lunatic asylums and establishing an ongoing Lunacy Commission with Ashley as its chairman.
A fascinating account of a taboo part of our Nation’s Social History.
Publication/Creation
London : Bradbury and Evans, 1844.
Physical description
291 pages, 1 unnumbered folded leaf of plates ; 24 cm
A fascinating and rare First edition - another copy is held by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
Written in 1844 by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury KG, a British Tory politician, philanthropist, and social reformer. A social reformer who was called the "Poor Man's Earl", he campaigned for better working conditions, reform to lunacy laws, education and the limitation of child labour.
This first Report ... presents us with a full exposition of the state of lunacy in England and Wales ... not merely a report on asylums but an inverted pyramid the apex of which was asylum inspection and the base of which a survey of the practice of psychiatry among all classes and institutions ...
In July 1845, Ashley sponsored two Lunacy Acts, 'For the Regulation of lunatic Asylums' and 'For the better Care and Treatment of Lunatics in England and Wales'. They originated in the Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy which he had commended to Parliament the year before and is the contents of this book.
These Acts consolidated and amended previous lunacy laws, providing better record keeping and more strict certification regulations to ensure patients against unwarranted detention. They also ordered, instead of merely permitting, the construction of country lunatic asylums and establishing an ongoing Lunacy Commission with Ashley as its chairman.
A fascinating account of a taboo part of our Nation’s Social History.
Publication/Creation
London : Bradbury and Evans, 1844.
Physical description
291 pages, 1 unnumbered folded leaf of plates ; 24 cm