The West Riding Lunatic Asylum and the making of the modern brain sciences in the nineteenth century Michael Anthony Finn Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of PhD The University of Leeds Department of Philosophy Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science September 2012 ii The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. iii The brain is wider than the sky, For, put them side by side, The one the other will include, With ease, and you beside. The brain is deeper than the sea, For, hold them, blue to blue, The one the other will absorb, As sponges, buckets do. The brain is just the weight of God, For, lift them, pound for pound, And they will differ, if they do, As syllable from sound. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886). iv Acknowledgements Though at times it seemed like the most solitary of occupations, writing this thesis has involved a number of people to whom I must express my sincerest thanks. First of all, I cannot overstate my gratitude to my two supervisors, Gregory Radick and Adrian Wilson, for all their wisdom and guidance over the last few years. It is thanks to them that I was not only able to complete the project, which they have constantly refined and improved, but that I came to Leeds and began working on this particular subject in the first place. I must thank other members of the Centre for History and Philosophy of Science at Leeds too, especially Graeme Gooday and Jonathan Topham, for their valued expertise and advice at various stages during my postgraduate studies, and Jonathan Hodge, whose generosity with his time and ideas has been greatly appreciated. My thanks further extend to Cathy Gere, Rhodri Hayward, Andrew Scull, and all the other scholars, too numerous to name here, who have listened to, read or discussed my work; and to my fellow postgraduates, in Leeds and further afield, for their friendship, encouragement and intellectual support. Among these I must particularly thank Dominic Berry, Claire Jones and Jen Wallis, who have each contributed in different ways to this thesis. I am also indebted to the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which funded my project, and to the unendingly helpful librarians and archivists of institutions listed in the bibliography, who provided the sources on which this thesis is based. Finally, I’d like to acknowledge the people outside of academia who have helped me along the way. Louise, for being such a great source of kindness and support; fellow members of Tuesday Funclub, for reminding me that there’s more to life than books (but not much more); Sue and Dick, for their generous assistance; and Paul and Helen, who have always done so much to help out their little brother. Most importantly, though, I’d like to thank my Mam and Dad, Rita and Brian, for their constant love and support, and for providing me with the opportunities in life that they never had. Though they aren’t particularly enthused by asylums or brains, this is for them. v Abstract In the final third of the nineteenth century, British asylums were backwaters. Custodians of the insane but curative failures, they lagged far behind the successes of their Continental counterparts and colleagues in other branches of medicine. Yet between 1866 and 1876, a British asylum – the West Riding Lunatic Asylum, under the direction of James Crichton- Browne – became one of the most active and important centres of scientific research in the world. This thesis is about that asylum – long recognised but little studied until now – and its pivotal role in the development of the modern sciences of mind and brain in Victorian Britain. Drawing on a wealth of published and archival sources, the thesis reconstructs the working practices of the asylum, explaining the intellectual and institutional background to its activities and describing its legacy in the field of medical science. In doing so, four new points are made. Firstly, it is argued that, through Crichton-Browne, the discredited ideas of phrenology had a more tangible link with the modern brain sciences than has previously been recognised. Secondly, it is explained how and why the ostensibly unpromising site of a Victorian asylum was made into a flourishing school of research. Thirdly, it is shown how the novel doctrine of cerebral localisation – the theory of localised brain functions – came to be fundamentally associated with the asylum’s programme of study. And fourthly, it is contended that the disciplinary split which occurred between neurology and psychiatry in the late nineteenth century was a legacy of the asylum’s work. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. iv Abstract ................................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents.................................................................................................................. vi List of Tables ...................................................................................................................... viii List of Figures ....................................................................................................................... ix List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................................ xi Introduction I. Prologue: ‘My Friend the Mad-Doctor’ ....................................................................... 1 II. Wakefield: The Very Model of a Modern Major Research School............................ 2 III. Rise and Fall: The Story of the Victorian Asylum .................................................... 7 IV. Fall and Rise: The Story of the Victorian Brain Sciences ...................................... 12 V. Science in the Asylum: Methodology and Outline of the Thesis ............................. 16 1. Phrenological Pragmatism: Asylums and the Brain between W.A.F. Browne and James Crichton-Browne I. Introduction: A Phrenological Path from Father to Son ............................................ 21 II. Edinburgh Debates: W.A.F. Browne in the Phrenological Ferment ........................ 23 III. Phrenology and Pragmatism in What Asylums Were, Are, and Ought To Be ......... 30 IV. W.A.F. Browne’s Model Institution and Mid-Century Models of the Brain .......... 41 V. Into the Family Business: Crichton-Browne’s Background in Brains ..................... 48 VI. Conclusion: An Individual Motivation ................................................................... 54 2. Neuro-Industrial Complex: Why, and How, the Asylum became a Centre of Scientific Research I. Introduction: Transforming the Daily Drudgery of Asylum Life .............................. 56 II. The Latent Research Potential in Nineteenth-Century British Asylums .................. 58 III. Managing the Committee: Realising the Research Potential in Wakefield ............ 64 IV. Novel Appointments: Re-organising Staff and Resources for a Research School .. 70 V. Moral Money Management: The Financial Pressures of a Research School ........... 83 VI. Conclusion: An Asylum Research School .............................................................. 87 vii 3. Patients and Post-Mortems: Constructing an Image of a Diseased Mind in the Asylum I. Introduction: The Patient as Material ........................................................................ 89 II. ‘Medical records, thoroughly and carefully kept’: Classifying and Diagnosing Patients in Asylum Case-Notes ................................... 94 III. ‘Therapeutic agents critically employed’: Drugs, Degeneration, and Moral Treatment ........................................................... 110 IV. ‘Post-Mortem examinations invariably and exhaustively performed’: Matter over Mind in the Explanation of Insanity ................................................... 121 V. Conclusion: The Visible Patient ............................................................................. 132 4. Local Functions: Cerebral Localisation in the West Riding Lunatic Asylum I. Introduction: A Divisive Theory .............................................................................. 134 II. Laboratory Life: David Ferrier’s ‘Experimental Researches’ ................................ 137 III. An Idea Exported: Localisation Beyond Wakefield ............................................. 144 IV. An Idea Institutionalised: Localisation in the Asylum .......................................... 151 V. Conclusion: Loss of Will ........................................................................................ 163 5. Divided Practice: The Legacy of Crichton-Browne’s Reign I. ‘Introduction: The Rise and Fall of Neurology and Psychiatry After Wakefield .... 165 II. Continued Function: Brain Research in the Asylum after 1876 ............................. 169 III. The Wakefield Cohort: Officers and Clerks Outside of the Asylum .................... 178 IV. Mind and Brain: A Divided Legacy of the Asylum .............................................. 188 V. Conclusion: The Failing Fortune of the Asylum .................................................... 192 Conclusion I. Psychiatry and Crichton-Browne’s Pessimistic