Paternoster Versus Finch and Eight Others

Proceedings in the case of Richard Paternoster versus William and Charles Finch, proprietors of a lunatic asylum at Kensington, John Paternoster, surgeon, and others, in the Court of Common Pleas. The case concerned Richard Paternoster's claim for damages after he was seized and certified as a lunatic in 1838. Witnesses included Edward James Seymour, Commissioner in Lunacy, Benjamin Hawes, MP, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Richard Paternoster went on to publish, in 1841, The madhouse system, a pamphlet attacking 'the absurdities of the Lunacy Act'.

February 1840

2 volumes Transcript. 2 volumes, each 315 × 210 mm., 434 pp. (Vol. 1 pp. 1-246, Vol. 2 pp. 247-434). Paper covers.

Purchased from P M Pollak, 1984.

Database description transcribed from Richard Palmer, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Wellcome Library for the History & Understanding of Medicine: Western Manuscripts 5120-6244 (London: The Wellcome Library for the History & Understanding of Medicine, 1999).