Peter Daly Murray
The first writer I confirmed through my analysis of the case books was Peter Daly Murray, who stayed in the asylum for the year of 1848.[1] It was very common for asylum patients to have short stays in asylums for two reasons which are inextricably linked. Firstly, patients would, generally, respond to the routine thrust upon them, meaning that they were deemed worthy of returning to productive society fairly soon after admittance. Additionally, because the social definition of ‘insanity’ became more acute patients were only thought to require short stays. In fact, the shorter the stay the greater healing powers the asylum could boast which meant physicians, ideally, wanted patients to stay in the asylum for a year or less.
Peter Murray was sent to the asylum to be treated for acute mania in 1848.[2] At this time, the term ‘acute mania’ could refer to a treatable case of melancholy or ‘insanity’; it was not until David Skae’s Of the Classification of the various forms of insanity on a rational and practical basis that ‘mania’ was broken down into specific illnesses with specific symptoms amongst Scottish alienists.[3]
Murray was a widowed father of four, had received a ‘classical education’ and was trained as a surgeon. During his twenty-year long career he had ‘served twice in Africa and in the West Indies’, making him a well-educated and well-travelled man.[4] The physician writing the notes declared that ‘his natural disposition is cheerful’ and that he was ‘possessed of superior abilities’.[5] The case book states that the cause of his acute mania is: ‘attributed to the anxiety and worry consequential upon arrangements he has been making for the undertaking a medical practice in Campbeltown.’[6] Interestingly, his acute mania is specifically attributed to an outburst he had because he believed the ship he was using to deliver medical supplies to Campbeltown was ‘filled with arms’.[7] The physician records that Murray asked the local authorities to search the ship and requested that, if arms be found on board, that they may be used ‘to assist French Republicanism or Irishmen in rebellion.’[8] Murray’s ‘revolutionary opinion’ is presented as the root of his mania and the delusion that, firstly, arms were on the ship and, secondly, that they should be used to support revolutionary action provide the legitimacy of his diagnosis.[9]
The case notes delineate a worsening of Murray’s delusions as on May 20th 1848 it is recorded that he ‘now discovers almost everyone he meets to be a Duke, or General and mostly sons or nephews of his own.’[10] However, an entry on June 17th asserts that his delusions have improved as he is addressing himself by his given name but, that, he still believes he has supernatural powers.[11] Murray’s case notes create an image of a man suffering from mild delusions that was admitted to the asylum because his revolutionary opinions were deemed ‘insane’.
Murray’s involvement in the Mirror is first mentioned on the 20th September 1848, as the case notes state: ‘he employs himself in writing various papers for the Mirror, and his own amusement.’[12] However, the case notes omit that Murray had had been editor of the Mirror since shortly after his arrival. Jonathon Andrews’ research has concluded that case notes in Scotland at this time were usually completed by junior attendants who spent more time with the patients than the superintendent.[13] Therefore, it is strange that Murray’s significant role in the periodical was not recorded. The Physician’s Annual Report from 1845 reads: ‘The ‘Mirror’ itself has proved a valuable means of affording occupation to some of the inmates and amusements to all.’[14] Therefore, although its therapeutic value was recognised by medical staff – displayed in the Physician’s Reports and the fact that authors were reported in the case books – physicians did not vigilantly pay attention to the hierarchical structure of the Mirror. As the physicians did not think it was important to observe and record the mechanics of the periodical it can be assumed that medical staff did not see the writers of the Mirror to be a threat to the inner workings of the asylum.
Furthermore, in reading the Manager’s minutes from this time period it is clear that the periodical was not viewed as an economic asset.[15] I came to this conclusion because a committee was created to discuss establishing a printing press at the asylum and, later, they discussed using the printing press to publish the Annual Reports. In the minutes for the meetings of the committee they discussed the economic value of the printing press and, afterwards, the value in printing the report. Therefore, this committee was attuned to the potential financial gains of the printing press and the printing of the Annual Report. However, a committee was never commissioned to discuss the printing of the Mirror, displaying that its purpose was seen as therapeutic rather than economic. Acknowledging that the periodical was not an economic asset is important as this bolsters the idea that high level physicians were not overly concerned with censoring the periodical because the content was for therapeutic purposes, not to make the asylum a profit. Nonetheless, it remained important that the asylum was displayed in a positive light.
Murray’s writings varied during his authorship. His longest address as editor was ‘To our readers’ in Vol 3, No.12.[16] Murray uses this article to thank the Mirror’s readers for their support and to ‘briefly record some of the amusements which have contributed to our happiness during the months of summer and harvest.’[17] Additionally, he uses his article to promote the asylum as a benevolent and effective institution institution, he states:
'The human mind, like a musical instrument, require first to be tuned, that there may be no discord - no jarring elemental sounds. That in many cases it is sadly out of tune, the fact of this costly establishment proved...The great object of this institution has invariably been to ascertain which of these musical chords was too high or too low, and by a nice adjustment of the whole, to produce harmony; and one of the means of adjustment has been our little periodical.'[18]
Thus, Murray uses his article to promote the asylum’s therapy and, also, the Mirror as part of that therapeutic model.
Moreover, Murray also used the Mirror to play out his delusions – specifically, the delusion that he was a sea captain.[19] Murray’s article from Vol 4, No.1 entitled ‘A Sea Flight’ acts out this delusion.[20] The article describes a mutiny of French prisoners on board an English ship captained by Lieutenant A.M., 4th R.V.B; at the end of the article the Lieutenant is glorified as the hero because he is able to stop the mutiny. This article is useful for understanding how the Mirror served as an independent medium in which patients could express their own understanding of delusions and, consequently, supports the idea that physicians were not overly interested in censoring the periodical as they viewed it as a form of therapy. Nonetheless, although Murray acts out a delusion here his writing style is rational and entertaining, and does not criticise the asylum. Thus, although the therapeutic value of the Mirror is illustrated by the context of Murray’s delusions, the inclusion of his article illustrates that medical staff were not involved in censoring the publication of patient fantasies.
[1] Case note entry on Peter Daly Murray., REA Case Book, LHB/51/5, p. 312-315.
[2] Ibid, p. 312.
[3] David Skae, Of the Classification of the various forms of insanity on a rational and practical basis: being an address delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, London, at the annual meeting of the association of Medical Officers on 9th July, 1963 ([Place of publication not identified]: [publisher not identified], 1863[?]), available at <https://wellcomecollection.org/works/qfvn3ek7> [Accessed 16 January 2022].
[4] Case note entry on Peter Daly Murray, LHB/51/5, p. 312.
[5] Ibid, p. 312.
[6] Ibid, p. 312.
[7] Ibid, p. 312.
[8] Ibid, p. 312.
[9] Ibid, p. 312.
[10] Ibid, p. 314.
[11] Ibid, p. 314.
[12] Ibid, p. 315.
[13] Jonathon Andrews, ‘Case Notes, Case Histories and the Patient’s Experience of Insanity at Gartnavel Royal Asylum, Glasgow, in the Nineteenth Century’, Social History of Medicine, 11.2 (1998), 255-81.
[14] William MacKinnon, Physician’s Annual Report (Edinburgh: Royal Edinburgh Asylum, 1845), p. 14.
[15] Sources consulted: Lothian Health Services Archive, Manager’s Minutes, LHB/1/2 and LHB/1/3.
[16] P.D.M, ‘To our readers’, Morningside Mirror, 3.12 (1848), 107-108.
[17] Ibid, p. 107.
[18] Ibid, p. 108.
[19] Case note entry on Peter Daly Murray, LHB/51/5, p. 314.
[20] P.D.M., ‘A Sea Flight’, Morningside Mirror, 4.1 (1848), 1-6.
James Taylor
The second writer I identified was a man named James Taylor who stayed in the asylum from 24th July 1848 through to 1849.[1] Similar to P.D.M, he received a classical education but was admitted for melancholy. His case notes state that he was addicted to masturbation and had anxiety about spiritual matters. Also, he had attempted to commit suicide eleven months before admission by throwing himself out of a window.
On 27th September the case notes state that he ‘reads and writes at times, one or two little articles by him for the Mirror and a few about notes written by him have been sent to his friends.’[2] On 10thOctober ‘he exhibits…a great amount of anxiety to get out of the asylum, to which he cannot be convinced’ and in December he refuses to take up employment.[3] One of the articles he writes is entitled ‘Biographical notice of the late Professor Tenant’, published in Vol 4, No.3 where he speaks about the successful career of a man with ‘great deformity’.[4] He states:
'feeble body, requiring the utmost care, was the reason of the praiseworthy habit which he followed through life of early rising. Seldom was he found in bed after five.' James Taylor, 'Biographical notice of the late Professor Tenant', Morningside Mirror, 4.3 (December 1848), p.13.
Thus, James praises the Professor’s work and acknowledges his success despite his deformity. Here we could conclude that Taylor is expressing his frustrations against his own lack of will with the deformity placed upon him.
[1] Case note entry on James Taylor., REA Case Book, LHB/51/5, p. 341-342
[2] Ibid, p. 342.
[3] Ibid, p. 342.
[4] J.T, ‘Biographical notice of the late professor tenant’, Morningside Mirror, 4.2 (1848), 13-14.
Emmay Deville URSS Project 2020/21 