A Short History of Psychiatry

This book presents a short and interesting history of Psychiatry. "Among the achievements of the nineteenth century none surpass the revolution wrought in the field of psychiatry. Going back into the very dawn of history we find scattered references to the treatment of madness, which was looked upon as a punishment by the gods or ascribed to demoniacal possession... Something more rational was attempted in Paris when by an Act of Parliament in 1660 the insane passed through two wards, especially reserved for them in Hotel Dieu, the ward St. Louise for men containing ten beds for four each and two small beds; the ward St. Martin for women containing six large beds and six small ones. Treatment here was by means of douches, cold baths, repeated bleedings, hellebore, purgatives and antispasmodics. If there was no improvement in a few weeks they were sent to the Petits Maisons, the Salpetriere or the Bicetre, where they were kept clothed in rags, confined by chains, poorly fed, bedded on rotten straw, often in cells infected with disease. As in England on holidays they were exposed to the gaze of the public, admitted for a small fee as to a menagerie..."