Familial Care of ‘Idiot' Children in Victorian England 1

Investigation into familial care of the insane in Victorian England lies in neglected land between three fertile fields of research: historical demography, the history of medicine, and the history of women's work. Historical demographers have traditionally examined fertility, nuptiality, and mortality and, in so far as they have investigated the affective relationships within and between families, these have been inferred from patterns of household formation. ² Historians of medicine have explored various dimensions of individual mental hospitals, ³ the seemingly inexorable expansion of the asylum system, ⁴ the writings of eminent medical men, ⁵ and the struggle for professional dominance. ⁶ Treatment has tended to be narrowly defined as institutional treatment by a recognized medical elite. Historians of women's work have been most sensitive to issues of caring within the household, especially regarding children and the aged, but have shied away from issues of ‘medical’ care for disabled members. ⁷ Oral history studies have begun to uncover the exchange of caring duties between working mothers, but since this methodology was developed only in the 1970s, the historical period covered rarely predates the 1890s. ⁸