John Haslam (physician)
John Haslam (1764–1844) was an English apothecary, physician and medical writer, known for his work on mental illness.
Life
He was born in London, and received his medical education at the United Borough Hospitals and in Edinburgh, where he attended medical classes in 1785 and 1786. After acting for many years as apothecary to Bethlehem Hospital, London, and obtaining a practical knowledge of diseases of the brain, he was created a doctor of medicine by the University of Aberdeen, 17 September 1816.[1]
Haslam established himself as a physician in London. To comply with the regulations of the College of Physicians in London, he entered himself at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and kept some terms there, but took no degree. He was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians, 12 April 1824.[1]
Haslam was distinguished in private practice by his prudent treatment of the insane, while his scientific publications and his contributions to periodicals gave him a good reputation. In an 1809 edition of a work on insanity he included a detailed description of a case which, some argue, is one of the earliest and clearest recording of what would be called schizophrenia in the 20th century.[2] He died at 56 Lamb's Conduit Street, London, 20 July 1844, aged 80.[1]
Works
Haslam wrote:
- ‘Observations on Insanity, with Practical Remarks on the Disease and an Account of the Morbid Appearances on Dissection’, 1798. The second edition was entitled ‘Observations on Madness and Melancholy’, 1809.
- ‘Illustrations of Madness, with a Description of the Tortures experienced by Bomb-bursting, Lobster-cracking, and Lengthening the Brain’, 1810 (for more information see James Tilly Matthews → Illustrations of Madness)
- For Rees's Cyclopædia he contributed the article on Mental derangement, Vol 23, (1812/13)
- ‘Observations of the Physician [i.e. Dr. Thomas Monro] and Apothecary of Bethlem Hospital upon the Evidence before the House of Commons on Madhouses’, 1816; Haslam's observations are on pp. 37–55.
- ‘Considerations on the Moral Management of Insane Persons’, 1817.
- ‘Medical Jurisprudence as it relates to Insanity’, 1817.
- ‘A Letter to the Governors of Bethlehem Hospital, containing an Account of their Management for the last Twenty Years’, 1818.
- ‘Sound Mind, or Contributions to the History and Physiology of the Human Intellect’, 1819.
- ‘A Letter to the Lord Chancellor on Unsoundness of Mind and Imbecility of Intellect’, 1823.
- ‘On the Nature of Thought and its Connexion with a Perspicuous Sentence’, 1835.
Haslam read three papers—‘On Restraint and Coercion’, 1833, ‘An Attempt to Institute the Correct Discrimination between Crime and Insanity’, 1843, and ‘On the Increase of Insanity’, 1843—before the Society for Improving the Condition of the Insane; these were printed with others by J. C. Sommers in 1850, in A Selection of the Papers and Prize Essays on Subjects connected with Insanity.[1]
References
- 1 2 3 4 Boase 1891.
- ↑ Yuhas, Daisy (March 2013). "Throughout History, Defining Schizophrenia Has Remained a Challenge (Timeline)". Scientific American Mind. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Boase, George Clement (1891). "Haslam, John". In Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography 25. London: Smith, Elder & Co.