Legal madness in the nineteenth century

Bartlett, Peter

Abstract

Legal sources remain under-exploited in the history of madness, and the legal character of some documents is sometimes unrecognized. This article examines the interrelations between legal and medical histories of madness, and discusses use and availability of nineteenth-century legal source materials relating to criminal insanity, mental incapacity, and the confinement of the insane.

Citation

Bartlett, P. (2001). Legal madness in the nineteenth century. Social History of Medicine, 14(1), https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/14.1.107

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2001
• Deposit Date: Aug 21, 2012
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 21, 2012
• Journal: Social History of Medicine
• Print ISSN: 0951-631X
• Electronic ISSN: 1477-4666
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 1
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/14.1.107
• Keywords: law; legal sources; madness; lunacy law; nineteenth century; insanity; incapacity
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1023189
• Publisher URL: http://shm.oxfordjournals.org/content/14/1/107.full
• Additional Information: This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Social History of Medicine following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version: Social History of Medicine, 14(1) (2001), 107-131, is available online at: http://shm.oxfordjournals.org/content/14/1/107.full