The American Journal of Insanity, Volume VIII, No. 2, edited by the Officers of the New York State Lunatic Asylum, Utica. October, 1851. Printed by the asylum, 1851. 97-196 continuous pagination. 5.75 x 9.25". 

In fair condition. Missing original wraps. Front page is lightly toned. Light graphite marginalia at top edge. Text block is very clean. Single instances of light foxing throughout. Pages are lightly toned. Binding is tight and in tact. Please see photos. 

The American Journal of Insanity, still in print as The American Journal of Psychiatry, is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal for a wide array of topics in psychiatric medicine. The journal was founded and edited originally by Amariah Bringham, the first director of the Utica Psychiatric Center. This 1851 issue contains:

• On Training and Educating Idiots - by Samuel Gridley Howe
• Life of Dr. [Samuel Bayard] Woodward - by George Chandler 
• Reports from hospitals of the insane

Samuel Gridley Howe (1801-1876) was an American physician and activist who supported a number of causes in the 19th century. Howe was an abolitionist, an educator of the blind, and and advocate for education. He sailed for Greece in 1824 and served the Greek army as a surgeon, was appointed by the Secretary of War in 1863 to investigate the condition of free blacks in the South, and was marred to Julia Ward, the famous poet and lyricist who wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic. In this pamphlet he advocates for the education of "idiots" from his position as superintendent of the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston. 

Dr. Samuel Bayard Woodward (1787-1850) was an American psychiatrist and the first superintendent of the Worcester Lunatic Asylum and founder of what would become the American Psychiatric Association. He is eulogized here by George Chandler who was Woodward's assistant, and a prominent psychiatrist in his own right. 

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