The Poor Law of Lunacy

Download or read book The Poor Law of Lunacy written by Peter Bartlett and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 1999-10-01 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most historians portray 19th-century county asylums as the exclusive realm of the asylum doctor, but Bartlett (law, U. of Nottingham) argues that they should be thought of as an aspect of English poor law, in which the medical superintendent had remarkably little power. He examines the place of the county asylum movement in the midcentury poor law debates and its legal and administrative regimes. Taking the Leicestershire asylum as a case study, he explores the role of poor law officers in admission processes, and relations between them and the staff and inspectors.