Whereas the history of the Royal College of Psychiatrists has been reasonably well documented, that of its journal, under its various titles, has received little attention. What follows is an attempt to redress the balance, but this could not have come about if my attention had not been drawn to the existence in the College library of the original, handwritten minutes dating from 1841 of the Association of Medical Officers of Asylums and Hospitals for the Insane and the succeeding body, the Medico-Psychological Association. This historic treasure, to steal a line from one of its pages, written in immaculate handwriting and expressed in elegant Victorian Gothic prose, “contained an unworked mine of golden wealth”.