The 1815 Act to Regulate Madhouses in Scotland: A Reinterpretation

The 1815 Act to Regulate Madhouses in Scotland (55 Geo. III c. 69) made provision for fee paying patients confined in institutions run by private individuals for profit. It is generally acknowledged to mark the beginning of Scottish legislation about the insane. Most historians of Scottish psychiatry refer to the act in a paradoxical manner that is factual yet also framed in broader terms. Short descriptions of selected provisions are given, which are then evaluated in terms of pre-1857 Scottish lunacy legislation that was limited in scope, custodial, sheriff-led and administratively and medically ineffective. The consequence of this prospective approach is that it becomes very difficult to distinguish historical judgements that are specific to the 1815 act. R A Houston adopts a different stance and uses features of the act, and the reporting system it brought in, to look back over Scottish lunacy provision during the “long” eighteenth century. He identifies continuities and changes associated with it. Pre-existing forms of eighteenthcentury professional co-operation between Scottish lawyers and medical men over the