NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE STATE LUNATIC HOSPITAL AT WORCESTER. December, 1841. Senate No. 8

Boston: Duttton and Wentworth, State Printers, 1842. Illustrated by Tables of detailed statistics [on 1359 consecutively numbered patients admitted from beginning] dated December 1, 1940 - November 30, 1941 inclusive. First edition. Original sewn wraps, uncut, unopened. 8vo (25cm). pp. 102, [2] blank. Very Good. Overall page toning, all sections unopened. (To His Excellency John Davis, [14th & 17th] Governor...). Includes: Report of Treasurer, Alfred Dwight Foster, with List of employee salaries [excluding Woodward and Chandler], provisions, other expenses; Report of the Superintendent, Samuel B. Woodward with 1359-patient roster [399 admissions with 232 patients remaining at the end of the year]; 21 narrated tables, sections on: Labor (produce from the farm $3,291.46, stock on hand: 4 horses, 2 oxen, 8 cow, 44 swine), Shoe-shop sales ($254), Amusements, Diet, Warmth and Ventilation, Medication, Physical and Moral Management, Feigned Insanity and Feigned Symptoms of the Insane, Library and Periodicals, Chapel and Religious Services, Register of the Weather (introduced 1839, 7th Annual Report). of interest is Table 18 "Showing the state of the Moon at the commencement of paroxysm of excitement in 70 cases of Periodical Insanity, amounting in all to 595 paroxysms. Also the relation of the Moon to the 102 deaths which have occurred in the Hospital." This table appeared in the 5th annual report and on. (see Sabin 45988). Woodward, regarded as the pioneer of American psychiatric practice. The works of Esquirol (1838), his student Phillipe Pinel (1801), Isaac Ray (1838) and others on feigned or simulated insanity were prevalent as well as the belief that equinoxes at certain times of the year caused madness. Lunatics were so named for the belief that the phases of the moon, especially the full moon was the cause..