A history of mental illness among women in the Straits Settlements in the nineteenth century.

The Straits Settlements, a collective colony under the administration of British Malaya, was a very unhealthy area in the early years of the nineteenth century. One of the most common sicknesses was mental illness, which could not be cured by medicines. The number of women suffering from mental illness was higher than in men, and it was found that there were many internal and external causes. The increasing number of women patients affected the role of mental hospitals, which were not only for treatment purposes, but also for business. This study will discuss the factors causing women to suffer from mental illness, and the role of the asylum for women mental patients in the nineteenth century.

Rosa Bonheur the Amazon? Equestrianism, female masculinity, and The Horse Fair (1852-1855).

In 1853, Rosa Bonheur first exhibited what would become her most widely celebrated work: The Horse Fair. Although the work's modern setting and animal-focused subject matter do not obviously characterize it as an instance of classical reception, the artist claimed that it was inspired by the Parthenon frieze. A significant amount of feminist and queer scholarship has been dedicated to Rosa Bonheur's life, career, and art practices, all of which reveal the complex ways in which the artist negotiated the gender norms of 19th-century France. These ranged from her decision never to marry, instead living in households with two women, to her officially sanctioned practice of cross-dressing when conducting art studies in public. In view of all these things, one of the most remarkable elements of The Horse Fair is the very probable inclusion of the artist's self-portrait, clad in masculine clothing and riding with legs astride her mount. Taking seriously Bonheur's Parthenonian quotation, how should her self-portrait within the male-dominated arena of the horse market be understood? The author argues that, by classical analogy, Bonheur may be regarded as a gender-bending Amazon of a sort that was radically distinct from the scores of so-called "amazones" promenading about Paris. A comparative consideration of contemporary visualizations of the Amazonian rider trope suggests that Bonheur appropriates and, as it were, refashions this modish, gendered imagery to make a bold statement of women's equality with men.

Wound healing at a Viennese medical school 200 years ago.

This historical account is a departure from the oblivion of the historical circumstances surrounding the introduction of the open method of wound healing by Vincenz Kern, a Viennese professor of surgery in 1809, and which is still used today in most surgical professions. Thanks are also due to the famous Medical University of Vienna from where Kern ultimately established numerous schools throughout Europe, including Croatia, as a then part of the great Austrian Empire.

Attempted suicide in older people in New South Wales, Australia, 1870-1908.

This study examines attempted suicide in older people between 1870 and 1908 in (NSW), Australia. Statistical Registers of NSW indicate persons aged 60+ had disproportionately high rates of apprehension (10.9%) and conviction (13.0%) for attempted suicide. Newspaper reports of 110 suicide attempts in older people indicate that alcohol misuse, poor health, depression, being tired of living, financial problems, relationship difficulties, loss events and insanity were the main issues. Most were treated compassionately with medical care and support, albeit sometimes in a gaol setting. Medical casebooks of persons aged 60+ years with suicide attempts (n = 49) or suicidal ideation (n = 43) admitted to hospitals for the insane indicated that over 75% were psychotic and 50% had melancholia.

Emil Kraepelin as a historian of psychiatry - one hundred years on.

This article reviews Emil Kraepelin's address 'Hundert Jahre Psychiatrie', at the opening of the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Psychiatrie in 1917, and published as an essay in 1918. Kraepelin's publication represents a part of his late work: his commitment as a historian of psychiatry. He composed a classic narrative of psychiatric progress, which includes an outlook on desirable future developments in therapy and prevention. The present article considers the essay's socio-historical context as well as its structure and content. The focus lies on its time of origin around the end of World War I, its sources in relation to the state of the art of historiography at that time and the history of its reception, including the English-language edition of 1962.

Karl Grassmann's 1896 paper "critical overview of contemporary theories of the heredity of the psychoses".

Four years before the rediscovery of Mendel's work in 1900, Karl Grassmann published a detailed, scholarly review of the heredity of psychosis which we here review. A full translation is in the appendix. We emphasize seven major conclusions from this review. First, while recognizing the key importance of heredity in the etiology of psychosis. Grassmann was critical of many of the highly speculative extant theories. Second, he reviewed most of the major methodologic concerns in the literature from what kinds of heredity to investigate to the problems with the global use of insanity as a diagnostic category. Third, he discussed in detail genetic theories associated with Degeneration theory, maintaining considerable skepticism. Fourth, he recognized nongenetic contribution to familial transmission. Fifth, he reviewed evidence for both homogeneous and heterogeneous transmission of forms of mental illness in families, suggesting that both were important. Sixth, while he noted that mania, melancholia, and cyclothymia commonly replaced each other in families, Verrücktheit (delusional psychoses) rarely co-segregated in families with these mood disorders. Seventh, Grassmann, like other 19th century writers, saw relatives to be of value only in assessing the level of hereditary predisposition in patients and had limited appreciation of the need for controlled studies.

A German physicist's travels in Great Britain Julius Plücker's visits from 1853 to 1866.

Today, we take international collaborations as a necessity, but 150 years ago, when travel was not so convenient, it involved an enduring and time-consuming challenge. This paper presents letters and reports written by German physicist Julius Plücker to his wife, Antonie née Altstädten describing his travels to Great Britain and France between 1853 and 1866. These letters provide a view into how international collaboration and communication were developed and maintained as well as how friendships were built within the scientific community during the early industrial age, prior to telegraph, telephone, email, and internet.

Language as a Specimen.

Language was never studied by linguists (or philologists) alone. The greater part of the languages of the world was first known in the West through the reports of missionaries, explorers, and colonial administrators, and what they documented reflected their specific interests. Missionaries wrote catechisms, primers, dictionaries, and Bible translations (especially Lord's Prayers); for explorers and administrators, language was one aspect among many to cover in their accounts of faraway regions. Peoples were identified by their language; toponyms served for geographic description; names of plants and animals were gathered together with specimens and images of plants and animals. In this context, linguistic materials were equally described as "specimens." This article investigates the various ways in which language material was used and conceived of as a specimen, and the global trajectories of these "specimens." Especially the role of naturalist explorers deserves closer attention in this regard. What they did, throughout the late 18th and 19th century, was gathering language material as one kind of specimen among others, Forster in the Pacific, Humboldt, Martius, and d'Orbigny in South America, and Peters in Mozambique. Two large-scale expeditions from the mid-19th century stand out as examples: the U.S. Exploring Expedition (1838-1842), whose collections later filled the Smithsonian Institution, and the Austrian-Hungarian Novara expedition (1857-1859).

Mary Livermore and My Story of the War: A nurse's narrative journey.

Mary Livermore's My Story of the War is a valuable piece of travel writing written from the point of view of a nurse who documented her unexpected personal and professional journey to administer the Sanitary Commission of the United States Union Army and provide nursing care during the American Civil War. Although Livermore's pre-war background had not been solely limited to the domestic sphere, her wartime experience involved a public negotiation between the traditional domestic realm assigned to women and new nursing professional functions that emerged during the war. In a context in which the general access of women to public writing was rather limited and in which nursing was not a formally regulated professional activity, Livermore's triumphal narrative reflects the increasing connection between progressively professional nursing functions that emerged in the context of war and a new women's rights leadership forged during her autobiographical journey.

The 'insanity' of Lady Durham.

This essay draws on evidence in a late nineteenth-century court case and surviving medical notes to provide a case study of a hitherto unidentified case of Autism Spectrum Disorder. The case is particularly interesting in that it not only appears to be the first identification of historical ASD in a female, but also because the patient subsequently developed symptoms of psychosis suggestive of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. The unusual survival of detailed medical notes also throws light on the ways in which a difficult patient was treated by supposedly enlightened pioneers of psychiatry.

The case of Dr Pownall - mad doctor, sane patient and insane murderer.

Dr Pownall was a surgeon, asylum proprietor and one-time mayor of Calne who had bouts of insanity. He had two serious bouts of violence when insane, and later murdered a servant, Louisa Cook, after his discharge from Northwoods Asylum as recovered. He was tried for murder and ended up in Broadmoor, where he died in 1882. There are extensive contemporary public accounts of the case, but detailed examination of the roles of the local chief magistrate, Purnell Barnsby Purnell, and Pownall's brother-in-law and asylum doctor, Dr Ogilvie, reveals severe tensions that adversely influenced events. Everyone defended themselves, and few lessons were learned about cooperation.

Gentleman Jack and the (re)discovery of Anne Lister.

Anne Lister was a brilliant woman who lived between 1791 and 1840. She kept a meticulous record of her life in her dairies, portions of which were written in code. In code, she describes her lesbian relationship with women. Parts of Anne Lister's dairies have been depicted in the hit television show, Gentleman Jack. In this special issue, we present research articles, theoretical contributions, and commentaries centering on Anne Lister and the phenomena of Gentleman Jack. Articles part of this special issue examine Anne Lister's writing about her sexual relationships, gender, and estate. Another set of submissions examines the relationship between Lister's life and its depiction in the show Gentleman Jack. A final set of submissions explores the unique phenomenon of international lesbian fandom surrounding Anne Lister. These fans helped decode and transcribe the diaries and created scholarship, art, and vibrant communities celebrating Anne Lister.

Prosper Lucas and his 1850 "Philosophical and Physiological Treatise on Natural Heredity".

Prosper Lucas (1808-1885) is a unique figure in the history of psychiatric genetics. A physician-alienist, he authored one of the most important books on human genetics in the mid-19th century cited frequently by Darwin: the 1,500 page treatise-Philosophical and Physiological Treatise on Natural Heredity (1847-1850). This book contained a novel theory of the nature of inheritance and a detailed review of the heredity of a range of human traits and disorders, including various forms of insanity. Lucas postulated four forms of heredity (direct, crossed, indirect, and atavistic), supported the importance of hereditary factors in insanity, accepted the inheritance of acquired characteristics, considered it important to examine both ancestors and collateral relatives, and recognized that heredity could influence both primary insanity and insanity secondary to other medical conditions. He reviewed the then available literature on most major forms of insanity including separate sections on hallucinations and suicidal monomania. The literature consisted of case reports of unusual families with high concentrations of illness. Lucas advocated for the homogeneity of transmission of forms of illness in families but recognized that-just as the form of illness could evolve within individuals over time-it could change forms when transmitted between relatives.

Freud, Griesinger and Foville: the influence of the nineteenth-century psychiatric tradition in the Freudian concept of delusion as an 'attempt at recovery'.

This article aims to situate the Freudian concept of delusion in psychosis as an 'attempt at recovery', within the context of the classical psychiatric theories prevalent in the nineteenth century. Freud's theoretical thinking on the psychopathology of psychosis presents elements of continuity with, and divergence from, the psychiatric theories of his time. We will thus demonstrate the singularity of Freud's own theory. We will discuss the possible influence that the theory proposed by Griesinger, with its description of a temporal evolution in the psychotic process, may have had on Freud's thinking, and consider the theory of 'deductive logic' prevalent in nineteenth-century French psychiatry. Finally, we will discuss the vehement critique Freud made of both these theories.

The paper technology of confinement: evolving criteria in admission forms (1850-73).

This paper investigates the role of admission forms in the regulation of asylum confinement in the second half of the nineteenth century. Taking the Toronto Lunatic Asylum as a case study it traces the evolution of the forms' content and structure during the first decades of this institution. Admission forms provide important material for understanding the medico-legal assessment of lunacy in a certain jurisdiction. First, they show how the description of insanity depended on a plurality of actors. Second, doctors were not necessarily required to indicate symptoms of derangement. Third, patients' relatives played a fundamental role in providing clinical information. From an historiographical perspective, this paper invites scholars to consider the function of standardized documents in shaping the written identity of patients.

'The voice of the stomach': the mind, hypochondriasis and theories of dyspepsia in the nineteenth century.

Physicians and surgeons during the nineteenth century were eager to explore the causes of stomach and intestinal illnesses. Theories abounded that there was a sympathy between the mind and the body, especially in the case of the dyspepsia. The body was thought to have physical symptoms from the reactions of the mind, especially in the case of hypochondriasis. Digestive problems had a mental component, but mental anguish could also result from physical problems. Dissertations from aspiring as well as established physicians probed the mental causes of irritable bowel diseases and other diseases in the medical literature. Healing was thought to come from contextualizing the link between the problems of the mind and the resulting physical problems of the body.

Sexual abuse by superintending staff in the nineteenth-century lunatic asylum: medical practice, complaint and risk.

The nineteenth century witnessed a great shift in how insanity was regarded and treated. Well documented is the emergence of psychiatry as a medical specialization and the role of lunatic asylums in the West. Unclear are the relationships between the heads of institutions and the individuals treated within them. This article uses two cases at either end of the nineteenth century to demonstrate sexual misdemeanours in sites of mental health care, and particularly how they were dealt with, both legally and in the press. They illustrate issues around cultures of complaint and the consequences of these for medical careers. Far from being representative, they highlight the need for further research into the doctor-patient relationship within asylums, and what happened when the boundaries were blurred.

Entre l'arbre et l'écorce : l'évolution de la profession de pharmacien au Québec aux XIXe-XXe siècles.

In Quebec's historiography, the history of pharmacies and pharmacists straddles the history of medicine, doctors and health, on the one side, and the history of small business and consumerism, on the other. Too much of a hybrid to fit neatly in either of those fields of study, it has largely flown under the historians' radar. This duality is nonetheless fascinating. Not only is it at the very heart of pharmacies' trajectory and evolution in Quebec, but it explicitly highlights the fact that health, medication, and consumerism have historically close ties. Having given the background to an important investigation held in 1899, the paper illustrates the tension between commerce and profession from the mid-19th century to the economic and identity crisis facing pharmacists in the Sixties and Seventies.

Dans l'historiographie québécoise, l'histoire de la pharmacie et des pharmaciens se situe en quelque sorte entre l'histoire de la médecine, des médecins et de la santé, d'un côté, et l'histoire du petit commerce et de la consommation de l'autre. Sans doute trop hybride pour s'inscrire fermement dans l'un ou l'autre de ces champs d'études, elle n'a que très peu attiré l'attention des historiens à ce jour. Cette hybridité n'en demeure pas moins fascinante. Non seulement est-elle au cœur de la trajectoire et de l'évolution de la pharmacie au Québec, mais elle met en évidence de manière explicite le fait que santé, médicament et consommation sont historiquement étroitement liés. Après avoir brossé le contexte qui mène à une importante enquête menée en 1899, l'article déroulera le fil rouge de cette tension entre commerce et profession du milieu du XIXe siècle jusqu'à la crise économique et identitaire à laquelle feront face les pharmaciens dans les années 1960 et 1970.

The pioneer ophthalmologist Johann Friedrich Horner (1831-1886) and the clinical anatomy of the homonymous syndrome.

Johann Friedrich Horner is remembered in ophthalmology due to his brief report in the German scientific journal 'Klinische Monatsblatter fur Augenheilkunde', in which emphasized the clinical value of a cluster of external signs of damage to the cervical sympathetic nerve. Although J .F .Horner was not the first to describe such a syndrome, he was credited with the nomination. For the French, Francois Pourfour du Petit was the pioneer in that case. Born in Zurich, travelled Europe to be further educated, becoming later on Professor and Director of the University Clinic of Ophthalmology in his native city. In conclusion, J .F .Horner's adamantine character, hard work, assiduous teaching and skills in eye surgery made him one of the main contributors for the evolution of ophthalmology in the nineteenth century Central Europe.

Strange Cases: Jekyll & Hyde Narratives as Rhetorical Strategy in Sir Alexander Morison's Physiognomy of Mental Diseases.

Sir Alexander Morison's Physiognomy of Mental Diseases (1838) was created as a didactic tool for physicians, depicting lunatics in both the active and dormant states of disease. Through the act of juxtaposition, Morison constituted his subjects as their own Jekylls and Hydes, capable of radical transformation. In doing so, he marshaled artistic and clinical, visual and textual approaches in order to pose a particular argument about madness as a temporally manifested, visually distinguishable state defined by its contrast with reason. This argument served a crucial function in legitimizing the emergent discipline of psychiatry by applying biomedical methodologies to the observation and classification of distinctly physical symptoms. Robert Louis Stevenson's "quintessentially Victorian parable" serves as a metaphor for the way 19th-century alienists conceptualized insanity, while the theme of duality at the core of Stevenson's story serves as a framework for conceptualizing both psychiatry and the subjects it generates. It was (and is) a discipline formulated around narrative as the primary organizing structure for its particular set of paradoxes, and specifically, narratives of the self as a fluid, dynamic, and contradictory entity.