ABSTRACT
Medical superintendents were a very literate group, turning out a large number of pamphlets and books on insanity and the asylum. One entry point to this material is the American Journal of Insanity, published by the Association of Medical Superintendents, organized in 1844. The Journal's pages are filled with discussions of the origins of the disease, classification, European ideas and programs, and the work of die asylums. For the asylum itself, one must begin with Thomas Kirkbride, On the Construction, Organization, and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane, with some Remarks on Insanity and its Treatment. The annual reports of the insane asylums are a crucial body of information. The fit between the ideas of asylum superintendents and the advice in child-rearing volumes can be established by looking at the tracts of such authors as Catherine Beecher, Lydia Child, Lydia Sigourney, Herman Humphrey, Jacob Abbott, and Artemas Muzzey.
