Lot 178
Medical Case Books - Berkshire Asylum / Moulsford Asylum
Rare Books, Maps & Manuscripts
Auction: 15 January 2014 at 11:00 GMT
Description
Two manuscript medical case books from the Berkshire Asylum, detailing the cases of mentally ill patients: Private Patients Males, c.1891-1916, c.200 manuscript pages of patient notes and pasted-down statements of death, plus an index, including 5 copies of letters sent by one patient to his parents, another from a patient to a member of the Church Army Corps and newspaper clipping relating to individual cases; Private Patients, volume 3, c.1917-1924, c.190 manuscript pages of patient notes and pasted-down statements of death, plus an index; both original half vellum gilt, rubbed and worn, writing clear and often legible (2)
Footnote
Note: Asylum names taken from statements of death and ephemera. These medical case books appear to relate to the 'County Lunatic Asylum for Berkshire', which closed its doors in 2003 under the name of Fair Mile Hospital. The asylum was opened in 1870 and was conceived as having male and female blocks, blocks for more dangerous patients and a block for convalescent patients. The case books offer a valuable insight into the ways in which the mentally ill were treated at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.