BURROWS (George Man). An Inquiry into Certain Errors Relative to Insanity; and their Consequences; Physical, Moral, and Civil.1820

London: Printed for Thomas and George Underwood, First edition, 8vo (220 x 130 mm), ix, [1], 320pp., some intermittent light foxing, 1 folding table, fait stamp to title page, later maroon cloth, rubbed, spine lettered in gilt. An investigation of the curability of insanity based on the statistics of a countrywide survey of mental institutions. "Burrows claimed to have cured eighty-one percent of all the mental patients in his private asylum, with the rate rising to ninety-one percent for cases of less than a year's duration—questionable figures that were nevertheless accepted uncritically by his book's many readers. The cult of curability was an extreme reaction to the earlier belief that insanity was beyond help; during the period of its greatest influence, it inspired a marked increase in the construction of state mental hospitals."—Hook & Norman. Provenance: Formerly in the library of the Birmingham Medical Institute. Hook & Norman, Haskell F. Norman Library I, 379; Hunter & Macalpine, p. 778; Wellcome II, p. 277.