Photographs from A Compendium of Insanity by John B. Chapin, M.D., 1898

The following photographs taken in 1898 are of actual patients of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. They were included in the book, A Compendium of Insanity by John B. Chapin, M.D., as an aid to help physicians and alienists (psychiatrists) identify “insane” patients simply by looking at them.

PLATE I.

Plate I – Imbeciles & Idiots 1898

1. Imbecile – Medium Grade
2. Imbecile – High Grade
3. Idiot – Low Grade
4. Idiot – Excitable
Page 30

PLATE II

Plate II – Melancholia 1898

1. Simple Melancholia
2. Melancholia with Agitation
Page 100

PLATE III.

Plate III – Melancholia & Mania 1898

1. Melancholia with Stupor Chronic Delusional Insanity
2. Acute Mania Chronic Mania
Page 116

PLATE IV.

Plate IV – Insanity & Mania 1898

1. Chronic Delusional Insanity
2. Chronic Mania
Page 122

PLATE V.

Plate V – Insane Criminals 1898

1. Chronic Mania: Homicide
2. Chronic Mania with Fixed Delusions: Homicide
3. Habitual Criminal and Convict: Chronic Mania
4. Habitual Criminal and Convict: Chronic Mania
Page 130

PLATE VI.

Plate VI – Paranoia & Composite Portrait 1898

1. Paranoia
2. Composite Portrait of Eight Cases of Paresis (By Dr. Noyes)
Page 130

(Paresis – slight or incomplete paralysis. General Paresis chronic meningoencephalitis from a syphilitic infection that is causing gradual loss of cortical function, resulting in progressive dementia and generalized paralysis; this may occur 10 to 20 years after an initial infection of syphilis in untreated individuals. Called also Bayle’s disease and dementia paralytica). SOURCE: Miller-Keane Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health, Seventh Edition. © 2003 by Saunders, an imprint of Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved. (https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/paresis).

SOURCE: 20. Reprinted from Chapin, John B., A Compendium of Insanity, (John B. Chapin, M.D., L.L.D., Physician in Chief, Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane; Late Physician Superintendent of Willard State Hospital, New York; Honorary Member of The Medico-Psychological Society of Great Britain and The Society of Mental Medicine Belgium, etc.), Illustrated, Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders, 925 Walnut Street, 1898, Pages 30, 100, 116, 122, 130. <http://books.google.com/>

Original PDF file created by Linda S. Stuhler 2011.

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