Friends of the
College Archives
NEWSLETTER
Issue 13, Spring 2014
College Archives update
Digitisation of the historical supplements
and Membership Lists
The Archives Department intends to complete the
digitisation of the historical supplements (1935-1977)
and the membership lists (1853-1941) in the British
Journal of Psychiatry and its predecessor the Journal of
Mental Science. Some of these sections were left out
when the Journal was digitised in 2000.
The supplements comprise divisional offices minutes,
notices by the Librarian and Registrar, quarterly
general meeting minutes, reports of Council, minutes of
annual meetings, annual reports to Council, obituaries,
reports of special and other committees, and minutes
of the spring meeting. The supplements complement
the other institutional records we have in the archives
collection.
The membership lists in the Journal of Mental Science
which are from the 1850s to 1960s are the only
complete membership record we have in the College
Archives. Digitisation of the lists will open up this
valuable information resource to members, fellows and
other researchers involved in family history research.
Antiquarian books
The Archivist is currently involved in arranging the
antiquarian books in their air-conditioned cabinets
according to subject classification. This will enable us to
do stock-taking of the collection, decide which books to
acquire for the development of the collection, and to
properly document the conservation requirements of
the books for the Adopt-a-Book scheme.
Dr Fiona Subotsky, Honorary Archivist and Professor
Harry Zeitlin are compiling a development policy for the
collection.
International Congress 2014 displays
The Archivist is also involved in
the International Congress. The
asylums, and on international
College and similar organisations
organising displays for
displays are on life in
relations between the
in other countries.
The MedicoPsychological
Association and the
Winslows by Fiona
Subotsky
Following on from discussion
of the Winslows in the last
Newsletter, their relationship
with
their
psychiatric
colleagues is described here:
Although Dr Forbes Benignus Winslow (1810-1874) was
not a founder member of the Association of Medical
Officers of Asylums and Hospitals for the Insane
(started 1841), he soon became Secretary, and then
President in 1857. However, there were tensions
between Forbes Benignus and the Association - which
in 1864 became the Medico- Psychological Association
(MPA). Forbes Winslow had started the Journal of
Psychological Medicine and Mental Pathology in 1848,
and comments in this:
Having embarked a capital of some thousand
pounds in establishing this journal, and having,
since 1848, stood nearly alone in fighting the
battle for the British psychologist...
It cannot be otherwise than mortifying that
those who have never lifted their little finger to
assist us, should, in 1853, attempt to injure the
property of this journal by starting a rival
publication.1
Several commentators have observed that the illfeeling was overcome, but his son Dr Lyttelton Stuart
Forbes Winslow obviously thought differently, as can be
seen from his remarks in his Recollections of Forty
Years (1911):
Dr Lockhart Robertson was editor of the Journal
of Mental Science [earlier the Asylum Journal]…
and was desirous of my father consenting to
amalgamate his journal with that of the Society.
1
He declined, and a feeling of ill-will sprang up,
which… had its disastrous effects.2
Molly Whittington-Egan speculates that this may have
been due to the editors being appointed as Chancery
Commissioners, and not placing their lucrative cases at
the Winslow asylums.3 It is also likely that despite early
attempts to keep the focuses of the two journals
distinct there was not enough of a market to maintain
both.
There are mysteriously few mentions of the Winslows in
the Journal of Mental Science (JMS), and the occasional
book reviews are very critical.
For instance, about
Forbes Benignus’s On Obscure Diseases of the Brain,
and Disorders of the Mind (his magnum opus according
to his son) the JMS in 1861 commented it was ‘a
conspicuous example of nearly all the faults with which
a medical work can become chargeable.’4 And on Light:
its Influence on Life and Health, the JMS in 1867
remarked ‘Dr. Winslow's book on Light is interesting as
an example of what a work on the subject ought not to
be’.5
Forbes Benignus’ son, Dr Lyttelton Stuart Forbes
Winslow, was a prolific author, and his main
publications were:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Manual of Lunacy (1874)
Handbook For Attendants on the Insane
(1877)
Spiritualistic Madness (1877)
Fasting
and
Feeding
Psychologically
Considered (1881)
Mad Humanity (1898)
A Codified Epitome of the Lunacy Laws in
England (?1902)
The Suggestive Power of Hypnotism (1910)
Recollections of Forty Years (1910)
The Insanity of Passion and Crime (1912)
Only one of these was reviewed in the JMS, though the
first two are serious professional publications, even if
the later ones tend to be for a popular readership. Mad
Humanity is commented on at some length, and here
are some brief extracts:
This book is written in the author's well-known
popular style...We consider the views expressed
of the gradual progressive degeneration of the
human race as unwarrantably pessimistic, and
those on the ill effects of opium smoking and
eating as much exaggerated…The author does
not deal with the treatment of insanity.6
Once Lyttelton Forbes Winslow had given up asylum
work, his main source of income was from forensic
practice, in which he chose only to witness in defence.
Two cases he was involved in are both described in his
Recollections and also commented on in the JMS:
Amelia Elizabeth Dyer, 57, nurse, was indicted
before Mr. Justice Hawkins for the wilful murder
of Doris Marmon. The prisoner was a babyfarmer on an extensive scale, and the facts [that
she had strangled many babies and thrown their
bodies in the Thames] were not disputed…Dr.
Forbes Winslow had examined prisoner for the
defence on two occasions in Holloway Prison…
Considered her of unsound mind, suffering from
melancholia, with delusions and hallucinations…
Dr. G. H. Savage had examined the prisoner at
the request of the Treasury. He came to the
conclusion she was not mentally unsound...
Prisoner was found guilty and sentenced to
death, being executed June 10th.7
Lyttelton Forbes Winslow’s view however was that:
I justify in every way my appearance on her
behalf in court from the fact that the statements
she told me, whilst I examined her in the prison,
were the same as she told the other doctors who
certified her in 1893 and 1894; and the
conclusion I arrived at was, that if she was
insane then, she was so at the date of my
examination and at the trial.8
In 1899 the JMS described the case of Mary Ann Ansell:
Mary Ann Ansell, 18, domestic servant, was
indicted for the murder of her sister Caroline
Ansell, a patient in Leavesden Asylum…The
prisoner insured the life of the deceased for £22
10s. [and] purchased several bottles of rat
poison, saying that her mistress had sent her for
it. On March 9th deceased received by post a
jam sandwich, which she shared with two other
inmates. All three were taken very ill, and
Caroline Ansell died…The plea of insanity was
raised on the ground that although the prisoner
had never been insane she had several relatives
in asylums, and Dr. Forbes Winslow was the only
medical man who could be found to say that the
prisoner was irresponsible. The jury found the
prisoner guilty [and she was subsequently
hanged].
We are clearly of opinion that the verdict,
sentence and action of the Home Secretary were
right…9
Lyttelton Forbes Winslow remarked later on this case:
Hereditary Insanity. Of this there is not the
slightest doubt. She is a mental degenerate so
often seen in families where insanity exists, as
in hers, to any great extent…There are two
insane sisters, and insanity inherited both on the
father's and mother's side.10
The JMS was silent on Winslow’s Recollections but the
British Medical Journal (BMJ) commented:
It must be said that Dr. Winslow's book does not
furnish altogether pleasant reading…
the greater part of the Recollections is made
irritating by the unnecessarily defiant attitude
which its author has seen fit to adopt, and dull
by his conspicuous lack of humour…One
becomes tired… of his grievances against
judges, the Home Office, and the police. He
seems to wish to produce the impression that all
murderers during the past generation have been
unjustly convicted…Dr. Forbes Winslow claims to
2
have solved the problem of the identity of Jack
the Ripper, but the evidence on which he rests
his claim is flimsy. 11
The JMS did not offer obituaries for the Winslows, but
presumably an anonymous ‘colleague’ provided the
following for the BMJ in 1913:
Dr Lyttelton Stuart Forbes Winslow, died on June
8th in his seventieth year He appeared as an
expert witness in many trials both in this
country and in America, and wrote a number of
articles on subjects connected with his province
of practice.
His opinion on any case that happened to
interest the public was apparently highly valued
by some newspapers, but with his own
profession it carried less weight.12
It seems that Lyttelton’s desire to emulate his father
unfortunately meant not only carrying on his name, but
is style of conflicts with colleagues.
techniques. He also gave a nice description of
desensitisation for irrational fears “your child shrieks
and runs away at the sight of a frog; let another catch
it and lay it down at a good distance from him: at first
accustom him to look upon it; when he can do that,
then to come nearer to it,…..” (Some Thoughts
concerning Education, 1709).
Some texts illustrate how previously well accepted
ideas now appear to us to be nonsense. The library has
quite a few books on phrenology, bumps on the head,
and how they were thought to indicate underlying
mental processes. Can these help us look critically at
current ideas and not automatically assume that they
are correct? Not possible? Prolonged sedation and
insulin therapy are not that long in the past. What do
we now think of the writings of Szasz (The Manufacture
of Madness,1971), who equated all mental illness with
witch hunting and Laing, who appeared to write in his
own language e.g. “The meaning of reality is the
impossible, the coefficient of resistance to my praxis”
(Reason and Violence, 1964)?
1
Winslow FB. J. Psychol. Med. & Ment. Psychol. 1848.
Winslow LF. Recollections of Forty Years. John Ousely, 1911.
3
Whittington-Egan, M. Doctor Forbes Winslow: Defender of
the Insane. Capella, 2000 .
4
Bushnan JS. Laycock and Winslow on the Brain: A Review.
JMS 1861; 7:236-275.
5
Dr Forbes Winslow on Light. JMS 1867; 13:278-280.
6
Review. Mad Humanity: its Forms, Apparent and Obscure by
L. Forbes Winslow MD. JMS 1899; 45:794-795.
7
Notes and News. Reg. v. Dyer. JMS 1896; 42:900-901.
8
Recollections, pp186-7.
9
Reg. v. Ansell. JMS 1899, 45:846-847.
10
Recollections, p 193.
11
Review. Dr Forbes Winslow’s Recollections. BMJ 1911; 2:74.
12
Obituary. Dr. Lyttelton Stewart Forbes Winslow. BMJ 1913;
1:1302.
2
Antiquarian Books –
Fading Old Paper?
by Professor Harry
Zeitlin
The College’s new building is
bright and spacious. It can
house the library’s possessions
and indeed begin to put on
display many books that were previously hidden. It is
difficult enough to select a range of modern books that
are of help to members but older and antiquarian books
present an even greater challenge; are they just fading
old paper behind glass doors or do they have special
value in the contents?
Many older books are fascinating in their own right. It
causes considerable surprise that writings over the last
five centuries have ideas and insights that are assumed
to be wholly modern. In the 17th century John Locke
wrote against smacking children and about other
means of changing their behaviour – psychological
Again, books in the more recent past can help us
understand the development of modern ideas. Have
you all read Sigmund Freud’s first book - On Aphasia
(1891)? Freud was of course a neurologist who studied
under Charcot in Paris, but is the concept of the
subconscious an extension of ideas on not being able to
express thoughts verbally? What about Kraepelin on
Dementia Praecox (1919), an introduction to the
concept of schizophrenia and MacDonald Critchley’s
book on Developmental Dyslexia (1964)? Should we all
have read these seminal books?
We think that older books are fascinating and thoughtprovoking and should be accessible to members. At
present the antiquarian book collection is being sorted
by the existing categories, which are not a perfect fit
and may be revised. Meanwhile, have a look and tell us
what ideas or questions they inspire - and what books
that are not there should we acquire?
Psychiatry
in
the
General Hospital: Guy’s
Hospital and the York
Clinic
by
Professor
Richard Mindham
The history of psychiatry at Guy's
provides an interesting reflection
on the place of services for the mentally ill in general
hospitals. The hospital is unusual in two important
respects. First, it was built and endowed by one man,
Thomas Guy, who had made a fortune from commerce
and printing and was fortunate enough to escape the
collapse of the South Sea Company. Second, his
bequest to found the hospital was intended to
supplement the services of St Thomas' Hospital and not
to replicate or replace them. St Thomas' Hospital began
as the Priory of St Mary Overie, situated at the
southern approach to Old London Bridge and began to
3
look after the sick as early as 1104. Thomas Guy was a
governor of St Thomas' and in his new hospital sought
to provide for the care of the incurable and the insane,
two categories of patient not admitted to St Thomas'.1
Guy's Hospital was founded in 1721,Thomas Dance was
appointed architect, and the hospital was opened in 1725
shortly after the death of its founder. 2 Dance's design for
the new hospital followed the medieval pattern of an
Oxbridge college3 The first part of the hospital was of wards
built around two small court yards with a colonnade
passing between them.
The building is shown in the
illustration [ Fig1 ] and it is thought likely that this is how
Dance envisaged the finished building.
The inscription on the memorial reads:
Underneath are deposited the remains of
THOMAS GUY,
Citizen of London, Member of Parliament, and the sole
Founder of this Hospital in his Life-time
It is peculiar to this beneficent Man to have persevered
during a long course of prosperous industry, in pouring
forth to wants of Others, all that He had earned by
labour, or withheld from self-indulgence. Warm with
Philanthropy, and exalted by Charity his Mind expanded
to those noble affections which grow but too rarely
from the most elevated pursuits. After administering
with extensive Bounty to the claims of Consanquinity,
He established this Asylum for that stage of Langour
and Disease to which the Charities of Others had not
reached. He provided a Retreat for
hopeless Insanity, and rivalled the endowments of
King's.
He died the 27th of December, 1724, in the 80th Year of
his Age.
The founder had specified in his instructions for the
building of the hospital that there should be provision
for the insane. This requirement was initially met by a
temporary building in the Park to the south of the main
building in 1727-8. Plans for a permanent building were
prepared by the architect James Bevans and the
Lunatic Block was completed in 1797. [Fig.3]
Fig.1 Engraving by WH Thom of Guy's Hospital
The wing to the east [left], completed in 1739, was
severely damaged by bombing but was restored for staff
accommodation in 1962. In 1779-8 the front of the
hospital was refaced in Portland stone and a statue of the
Founder by Scheemakers erected in the forecourt. The
west wing was built in 1774-9 and accommodated the
Chapel. Although the chapel was damaged in the WW II, it
can be seen in it's original form and has a memorial of
1779 to the founder by the sculptor John Bacon.4 [Fig.2]
Fig.3 Guy's Lunatic Block
This was one of the first buildings to follow the
principles of the panopticon proposed by the
philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, by which senior staff of
an institution could observe the conduct of their staff
and the inmates without themselves being seen.
5
[Fig.4]
Fig.2 Monument to Thomas Guy 1779
Until the early nineteenth century the two hospitals
worked together as Thomas Guy had intended but the
senior staff of Guy's wanted to take students on their
own account and the two drifted apart. This separation
4
was formalised by the establishment of Guy's Hospital
Medical School in 1826 and completed by the removal
of St Thomas' Hospital to the Lambeth Embankment in
1862-68. The governors of Guy's now saw the hospital
as a general hospital and in 1859 applied for an Act of
Parliament to allow them to deviate from the Founder's
wishes and cease to provide inpatient accommodation
for the insane. This Act was passed and Bevan's
building put to other uses until its demolition in 1919. 6
psychiatry. The setting of the unit facilitated referral of
patients to a full range of medical specialists. The
building was vacated in 1997 and its services moved
elsewhere.
I had a placement as an undergraduate student in the
York Clinic in 1958 and worked there as SHO 1964-5.
Although the mixture of patients was unusual it
provided an excellent experience of general hospital
psychiatry. All the relevant disciplines were represented
among the staff and because of the small size of the
unit they worked closely together. Senior nursing staff
were qualified in mental health work but junior nurses
were undertaking general training in the hospital and
came to the York Clinic for only a few months. This mix
of nursing staff worked very well. The consultant staff
presented an image of psychiatry as a distinct speciality
integral to medical practice as a whole. 8 Presented in
this way psychiatry was attractive to students and this
was one of the factors which led me to enter the field.
Thomas Guy's will was innovative in its provisions and
challenged subsequent generations to live up to his
vision of a truly general hospital.
1
Fig.4 Plan Elevation of Guy's Hospital
Inpatient provision for mental illness was not restored
until the building of the York Clinic in 1944 following the
receipt of a bequest in memory of Dr RD Gillespie,
consultant in mental illness to the hospital. The York
Clinic was designed by the architect Murray Easton in
the Modern style. On the ground floor there were
offices and a conference room; the wards were on
floors one to four; on the roof there was a large room
for group activities and an open area protected by
secure fencing; and in the basement were the kitchens
and the occupational therapy department. The wards
provided a mixture of individual rooms and small wards
of two to four beds. There was covered access to other
parts of the hospital and direct access to the Borough
High Street, shops and buses.
On completion the
building was used mainly for the treatment of service
personnel but when the NHS came into being in 1948 it
became an integral part of the hospital providing 43
beds in all with 15 allocated for NHS patients.7 The unit
provided a liaison service to the hospital and offered a
range of specialist services for eating disorders,
assessment for psycho-surgery, and tertiary referrals
but admitted no detained patients. Staff of the unit held
out-patient clinics in general and child and adolescent
Ripman HA, Ed.[1951], Guy's Hospital 1725-1948. London,
Guy's Hospital Gazette Committee.
2
Colvin H, [1955], A Biographical Dictionary of British
Architects, 1660-1840. New Haven and London, Yale
University Press.
3
Richardson H, Ed. [1998], English Hospitals 1660-1948, A
Survey of their Architecture and Design. Swindon,
RoyalCommission on the Historical Monuments of England.
4
Cawson RA, Orde THE, {1976], The Design and Building of Mr.
Guy's Hospital. In : Guy's Hospital 250Years. Ed. Handler CE.
London , Guy's Hospital Gazette.
5
Bentham J, [1787], Panopticon or Inspection House etc,
Letters from Crecheff in White Russia. Internet.
6
Stafford-Clark D, [1976], The Sarah Stolz Lecture 1976. In :
Guy's Hospital 250 Years. Ed. Handler CE, London, Guy's
Hospital Gazette.
7
Jones E, [2004], War and the Practice of Psychotherapy : the
UK Experience 1939-1960. Medical History, 48 : 493-510.
8
Fleminger JJ, [1983], Psychiatry at Guy's. Guy's Hospital
Gazette, 97 : 296-302
Contributing to the newsletter:
Brief articles, letters and notices of events
are welcome. Please send contributions to
the Archivist, Royal College of Psychiatrists,
21 Prescot Street, London E1 8BB.
5
Forthcoming events:
The Historical Evolution and Future of
Neurology and Psychiatry
One Day Symposium on 9th July 2014, at the
Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London
Reviewing the historical evolution of neurology and
psychiatry, the programme includes Babylonian,
Islamic, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th century developments
and exploration of the present and future relationships
of the two disciplines. Illustrative topics include
consciousness, demonomania, epilepsy, hysteria and
war neurosis
Speakers will include Sir Richard Trainor, Edward
Reynolds, Raad Shakir, Fiona Subotsky, Alstair
Compston, Allan Beveridge, Edgar Jones, Timoth
Nicholson, Adam Zeman, Michael Trimble, Anthony
David, Tilli Tansey and Shitij Kapur
The meeting will include a discussion on a future forum
for the History of Neurology and Psychiatry
See www.kcl.ac.uk/hnps for full programme and
registration details.
Symposium supported by King’s College London.
6