Author: TUKE, Daniel Hack.
Title: Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British Isles.
Description: London, Kegan Paul 1882. Octavo half gilt morocco (edges rubbed); xii,548pp, 4 plates. Ex parliamentary library with their gilt crest on the front board and incorporated into the spine, no other markings; some foxing but an attractive copy. ¶ First edition. The first such history, long standard and still invaluable. Tuke was a fourth generation reformer and caretaker of the insane; his great-grandfather founded, with his son, the York Retreat in 1792, "the date of the new departure in the treatment of the unhappy class," his grandson (Daniel's father) continued his work and Daniel can be said to have served his apprenticeship there. This is history with purpose, a history with which "every friend of humanity ought to be acquainted".

Keywords: science medicine psychology insanity asylums history England c19th social sciences