Specialist books : Mad histories

We know about Elizabeth Gaskell, but what about her brother-in-law Samuel? He
“published virtually nothing of any significance in the course of a professional
career that spanned four decades”. Yet through the indefatigable pursuit of fair
practice, as a lunacy commissioner in 19th-century Britain, he transformed
mental healthcare, in part by making clear the legal constraints within which
doctors could operate. In Masters of Bedlam: The Transformation of the
Mad-Doctoring Trade (Princeton University Press, £23/$35, ISBN 0
691 03411 7), Andrew Scull, Charlotte MacKenzie and Nicholas Hervey trace the
tortuous path from cruelty to compassion by exploring the lives of seven
“mad-doctors”.