Hospital and asylum visiting in historical perspective: themes and issues.

Compared to doctors, patients and institutions, visitors are an understudied constituency in medical history. The collection of essays in this book situates the historical practice of hospital and asylum visiting in broad social, cultural and geographical perspectives. This introduction loosely categorises visitors into four groups: patient visitors, including family and friends; public visitors, such as entertainers, tourists and the clergy, who have no direct formal ties with the institution or the patients; house visitors involved with the management and government of the hospital; and official visitors, who have inspectorial responsibilities. Discussion of the wider historical significance of visiting draws attention to issues such as urban governance, philanthropy, the public sphere, civil society and citizenship.

Receiving the rich, rejecting the poor: towards a history of hospital visiting in nineteenth-century provincial England.

The changing perceptions of visitors to hospitals in provincial England during the long nineteenth century are examined in this chapter. In particular, it discusses the experience of visitors to hospitals in nine general and specialist hospitals in Birmingham, England's 'second city'. Though the history of visitors in this provincial setting supports the general assumption that hospital governors received the rich and rejected the poor, this chapter demonstrates that attitudes to visitors were not always straightforward. Views of hospital governors and medical staff varied with medical specialism, hospital finances, and a host of other factors.

John Darwall, MD (1796-1833): the short yet productive life of a Birmingham practitioner.

This paper summarizes the life and work of John Darwall, a Birmingham physician whose work helped develop several fields of medicine, including occupational health, medical journalism and paediatrics.