This book draws largely on my unpublished Doctoral Thesis: A Space of
Their Own: Nineteenth Century Lunatic Asylums in England, South
Australia and Tasmania, and l am happy to send information on South
Australia and Tasmania not included in this book to interested readers.
I would like to dedicate this book to my family who have lived for many
years with my passion for lunatic asylums, and in particular my mother,
Margaret Piddock, manuscript reader extraordinary. I would like to thank
Professor Vincent Megaw for introducing me to the Destitute Asylum
excavation and for starting me on the path of institutional archaeology,
and for his and Ruth Megaw's support through my student years, and
Claire Smith and Heather Burke for helping turn research into a thesis.
I would like to thank James Gibb for preparing illustrations from my
tracings and Dr. Elizabeth Heath, for her support over the years and for
reading of this book in its various stages. v P Piddock-FM.indd v
iddock-FM.indd v 9 9/7/2007 11:47:25 AM /7/2007 11:47:25 AM Glossary
Acute/manic/furious/frantic - these words were used to describe the
behaviour of the insane while they were experiencing the initial on set
of mental illness or a further period of mental illness when their
actions were uncontrolled and the person could not be reasoned with.
Patients in this state were often physically restless, sometimes
violent, and difficult to reason with.