Sarah Wise

A huge number of male lunatics were admitted to asylums suffering from a condition that was understood in the 19th century as “general paralysis of the insane” (GPI). A very interesting piece on this condition, written by one Dr E… Continue reading →

It would be intriguing to know exactly how Baron Karl Andreas treated those who responded to his newspaper and magazine advertisements. Quack medicine was huge business in the 19th century, and “nervous” diseases were a highly lucrative market.

Charles Dodgson’s “Uncle Skeffington” was the man who drafted the landmark lunacy legislation of 1845, which remained in place until the 1890 Lunacy Act. Robert Wilfred Skeffington Lutwidge was a lawyer and had been appointed secretary to the Commissioners in… Continue reading →

Lewis Carroll’s favourite uncle, Robert Wilfred Skeffington Lutwidge (“Uncle Skeffington”, paid the ultimate price in his job as Commissioner in Lunacy, on a visit to Fisherton House Asylum, near Salisbury in Wiltshire. Former asylum gardener Jeremy Moody tells the story…. Continue reading →

After 1845, anyone who set themselves up to care for more than one lunatic on their premises had to obtain a licence to run an asylum from the Commissioners in Lunacy. The Commissioners mounted prosecutions of those who failed to… Continue reading →

Many “doctors of psychological medicine” in the nineteenth century wrote of patients who were able to suppress delusional notions, often for quite long spells, and claimed that this was why many of them appeared, to non-medical folks, to be sane…. Continue reading →

This is one of my favourite “madhouse” abduction stories – partly because it has a swift and happy dénoument, but also because the victim is someone who we today might think is atypical. The plot was undertaken against an elderly,… Continue reading →

Mrs Georgina Weldon (1837-1914) took many different types of revenge on the men who had plotted to have her unjustifiably certified insane. One of her funniest coups was to hire sandwich-board men to parade up and down all day outside… Continue reading →

This wonderful villa is Lawn House, in Hanwell, on the western edge of London. It was in use as a small private asylum in the mid- to late-19th century, with a maximum of six wealthy female patients in residence at… Continue reading →

Among the improvements that Dr John Conolly (see various stories on this site) continued and developed at the Middlesex County Asylum at Hanwell were organised Christmas festivities for patients. These were gender-segregated, and pictured above is the males’ Twelfth Night… Continue reading →