Reprint of the original, first published in 1874.

Excerpt from Manual of Lunacy: A Handbook Relating to the Legal Care and Treatment of the Insane in Public and Private Asylums of Great Britain, Ireland, United States of America, and the Continent AT the desire of the publishers and author of this work, I have undertaken, by means of a short Preface, to introduce it to the members of the Legal and Medical professions. It is scarcely necessary to say that it affords me much pleasure to accede to their request, and thus assist in the de'but of my son, about making (to quote the language of Lord Byron) his first dash into literature. I am glad of the opportunity of advancing with him to the footlights of the great stage of letters, and, after an affectionate grip of the hand, and a few cheering and stimulating words, leave him to the kind judgment of his audience - the critics. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This book represents the first systematic study of the certification of lunacy in the British Empire. Considering a variety of legal, archival, and published sources, it traces the origins and dissemination of a peculiar method for determining mental unsoundness defined as the ‘Victorian system’. Shaped by the dynamics surrounding the clandestine committal of wealthy Londoners in private madhouses, this system featured three distinctive tenets: standardized forms, independent medical examinations, and written facts of insanity. Despite their complexity, Victorian certificates achieved a remarkable success. Not only did they survive in the UK for more than a century, but they also served as a model for the development of mental health laws around the world. By the start of the Second World War, more than seventy colonial and non-colonial jurisdictions adopted the Victorian formula for making lunacy official with some countries still relying on it to this very day. Using case studies from Europe, the Americas, and the Pacific, this book charts the temporal and geographical trajectory of an imperial technology used to determine a person’s destiny. Shifting the focus from metropolitan policies to colonial dynamics, and from macro developments to micro histories, it explores the perspectives of families, doctors, and public officials as they began to deal with the delicate business of certification. This book will be of interest to scholars working on mental health policy, the history of medicine, disability studies, and the British Empire.