ABSTRACT
C Ritics of the private-madhouse system often claimed that madhouses served little or no curative function and, at best, provided only custodial care. With regard to the period in the history of madhouses under present consideration, however, there is evidence that such a generalization would be misleading. The restoration of the lunatic was the primary objective in many private madhouses during the second half of the eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, a period when the reputation of the madhouse system was particularly low, although it was recognized then, as at the present day, that only custodial care was possible in a number of cases. Those who treated the insane at this time, in madhouses in various parts of the country, have not received their proper acknowledgment. Amongst the examples which lend support to this view may be quoted a letter (Plate VIII), dated December 1749, from James Jeffery, owner of the madhouse at Kingsdown, Box, Wiltshire, 1 to the Trowbridge parish overseers regarding a lunatic from that parish. This letter portrays, quite clearly, Jeffery's concern for the welfare of his patient, and the following is an extract from the letter:
Gentlemen … concerning John Porter … his disorder its much worse than a raving madness and more difficult to cure he being in a sullen meross way … I believe need no more at present but that I shall do the best I can for his recovery. 2
