Read about Royal Edinburgh Asylum’s first superintendent, Dr William McKinnon (1839-1846) here

Read about McKinnon’s successor, Dr David Skae (1846-1873) here

The Royal Edinburgh Asylum’s East House was opened in Morningside in 1813 for privately paying patients. Dr Andrew Duncan – a Scottish physician and professor at the University of Edinburgh – was the force behind the asylum’s erection. He was President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh from 1790 until 1792, and again from 1824 until 1825. Dr Duncan started raising funds from the public in 1792 but it was not until 1806 that he had acquired enough money for construction to begin. His key motivation was the death of his friend Robert Fergusson in the Edinburgh City Bedlam. Mr Fergusson was admitted to the Edinburgh City Bedlam after receiving a head injury from falling down some stairs. Dr Duncan stated in 1774 that he found Ferguson in an awful state of living conditions which worsened his mental state. The inadequate conditions Duncan describes were the general conditions experienced by those deemed ‘insane’ at the turn of the nineteenth century.

In 1843, the West House was opened to house ‘pauper’ patients; these were patients who could not afford to pay for their keep. The Royal Edinburgh Asylum was obligated, as one of Scotland’s six chartered public asylums, to admit patients from within the city. Under Scotland’s New Poor Law of 1845 each of Scotland’s 883 local parishes were responsible for the care of ‘insane’ people within their boundaries. Local Inspectors of Poor were responsible for placing insane paupers into asylums at a fee which was agreed by both parties, and was paid by the patient’s parish. Pauper fees were set yearly and fluctuated based on the availability of accommodation within the asylum; in 1848 the yearly board for pauper patients was between £20 and £25.^[1] However, the Manager’s of the asylum did alter the fee in some specific cases where those representing the pauper patient campaigned for lower board.

The Royal Edinburgh Asylum’s stringently followed and promoted moral treatment. Accordingly, the asylum’s ‘world within’^[2] was exposed to the public. There were weekly balls held in the East and West Houses up until the latter half of the nineteenth-century. Visitors were encouraged at these balls and the Mirror proves a useful source for displaying how much enjoyment these balls brought to the patients. For example, in 1847 a patient under the pseudonym ‘J.C’ wrote: ‘I stood within the lightened hall, and viewed the happy throng, commingling in the joyous dance, or listening to the song.’^[3] This poem extract displays the ball as a joyous occasion where everybody is enthralled by the entertainments. Furthermore, in 1850 an author under the pseudonym ‘IRAM’ stated that at the balls ‘there was a fair sprinkling of strangers present’ which confirms the regularity of new visitors at the weekly balls.^[4]

Additionally, patient’s letters were not strictly censored until 1866 which allowed a free flow of communication between patients, their families, the medical staff and, if procured, their legal representation. Consequently, the asylum was very open to public opinion and created opportunities where patients could disclose mistreatment to family and friends. This is important when considering the public nature of the periodical as it bolsters the idea that the writings of the Mirror were not rigorously censored because the periodical was not the only vehicle through which the inner-workings of the asylum could be revealed and criticised.

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^[1] David Skae, Annual Report of the Lunatic Asylum at Morningside (Edinburgh: Royal Edinburgh Asylum, 1848), p.5.

^[2] Erving Goffman, Asylums: Essays on the social situation of mental patients and other inmates (New York: Doubleday, 1961), p. 95.

^[3] J.C, ‘I stood within the lightened hall’, Morningside Mirror, 3.1 (1847), p. 3.

^[4] IRAM, ‘Amusements in Lunatic Asylums, New-Year’s Eve at Morningside’, Morningside Mirror, 5.5 (1850), 165-167 (p.165).