ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that some examples where quantitative methods are of considerable utility in researching an asylum’s history. Quantitative methods in processing medical data do not necessarily overcome, and may merely make more obvious, the difficulty of framing a satisfactory interpretation of the evidence. An illustration would be that of standards of patient care in the era of moral management when quantitative indicators might indicate improvement, while qualitative evidence from medical case notes might suggest deterioration. A major problem in using quantitative methods in a study of the asylum can arise from using statistics provided by contemporaries, which on close scrutiny appear to be more misleading than enlightening. Data from the Retreat on recovery rates, duration of stay, and the marital status of female patients largely undercuts the third image concerning the indefinite detention of married women within the asylum.
