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Workhouse or asylum: the nineteenth century battle for the care of the pauper insane

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

E. D. Myers
E. D. Myers*
Affiliation:
Department of Postgraduate Medicine and Biological Sciences, University of Keele, North Staffordshire Hospital Thornburrow Drive, Hartshill Stoke-on-Trent ST4 7QB
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Abstract

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Throughout the 19th century some 20–25% of all known pauper lunatics in England and Wales were accommodated in workhouses. Early on, the lunacy commissioners considered that all pauper lunatics should be admitted to asylums and were highly critical of the conditions under which they were kept in workhouses. As the century progressed the lunacy commissioners were forced to compromise because of the lack of space in asylums and diminishing confidence in the results of asylum treatment. By the end of the century the lunacy commissioners were reconciled to the accommodation of feeble-minded, imbecile, idiot, chronic psychotic and demented paupers in workhouses, but held to the view that the acute pauper insane should be admitted to asylums.

Type
History of Psychiatry
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 22 , Issue 9 , September 1998 , pp. 575 - 577
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

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