A Concise History of the Entire Abolition of Mechanical Restraint in the Treatment of the Insane: And of the Introduction, Success, and Final Triumph of the Non-Restraint System

The most famous nineteenth-century British reformer of care for the mentally ill and disabled was undoubtedly John Conolly, whose 1856 Treatment of the Insane without Mechanical Restraints is also reissued in this series. However, Conolly’s work at the Hanwell Asylum near London was based in part on the pioneering efforts of Edward Parker Charlesworth (1781-1853) and his younger colleague Robert Gardiner Hill (1811-78), who had already (and controversially) abolished physical restraint in the Lincoln Asylum by 1838. Conolly is known to have visited and been impressed by the Lincoln hospital, but his supporters, and his own book, suggested his primacy in the field, and Hill published this work in 1857 in order to refute Conolly’s claims. The first part consists of Hill’s account of his and Charlesworth’s reforms at Lincoln, and the second reprints many of the letters and pamphlets which focused on the topic during this period.