We know about Elizabeth Gaskell, but what about her brother-in-law Samuel? He "published virtually nothing of any significance in the course of a professional career that spanned four decades". Yet through the indefatigable pursuit of fair practice, as a lunacy commissioner in 19th-century Britain, he transformed mental healthcare, in part by making clear the legal constraints within which doctors could operate. In Masters of Bedlam: The Transformation of the Mad-Doctoring Trade (Princeton University Press, £23/$35, ISBN 0 691 03411 7), Andrew Scull, Charlotte MacKenzie and Nicholas Hervey trace the tortuous path from cruelty to compassion by exploring the lives of seven "mad-doctors".
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