ABSTRACT
In 1885 Hannah W was committed to the Auckland Lunatic Asylum. She was described as ‘excited, noisy, incoherent, restless and mischievous … Has been in the asylum on more than one previous occasion’. Her form of insanity was recorded as ‘mania’ with the cause unknown. John V was committed in 1870 because he was ‘constantly pacing up and down excited and says there is something wrong in his head’. Doctors were also at a loss to explain his ‘mania’. 2
