One of the most mysterious figures in Inconvenient People is Dr John Parkin. He first crops up in 1838 as a very early member of the patient advocacy body the Alleged Lunatics’ Friend Society; but eight years later he was jointly running (with his sister) a small private asylum, York House in Battersea. Mrs Catherine Cumming, the subject of Chapter 5 of my book, was very well treated by the Parkins, who were fond of her, and insisted that she spend time in their private quarters as she awaited the public hearing of her case.

It never came to light how Parkin moved so easily between anti-lunacy-law campaigning and being the proprietor of a profit-making mad-house. Parkin himself had had a serious breakdown and was placed in an asylum in the 1830s. He did not allege that he had been wrongly incarcerated, but was horrified at the conditions in the asylum and he joined the Alleged Lunatics’ Friends in order to raise standards for patients.

Parkin was additionally a respected epidemiologist, and his main hobby-horse was his belief that malaria, cholera and typhoid epidemics were caused by atmospheric violence brought about by hurricanes, volcanic eruptions and high winds rushing around the planet.

I was reminded of Parkin’s hypothesis by reports that British and American scientists believe that climate change has caused malaria to spread to previously unaffected high ground in both Colombia and Ethiopia, as such areas have become progressively warmer. (See further details of the findings at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/climate-change-is-increasing-the-risk-of-malaria-for-people-living-in-mountainous-regions-in-the-tropics-9174448.html )

These two maps come from the book that Parkin was working on when his mind collapsed. It went on to receive positive reviews from his fellow scientists, Epidemiology; or The Remote Cause of Epidemic Diseases in the Animal and in the Vegetable Creation, with the Cause of Hurricanes and Abnormal Atmospherical Vicissitudes.