The History of Scurvy and Vitamin C

and suggestive step.It seems difficult to dispute that a significant change did indeed occur in the early 19th century in the approach to the treatment of the insane, a change that in the English-speaking world began at and spread from the York Retreat.Similarly, after reading Digby's balanced account it seems naive to portray moral treatment as an entirely benign process in con- trast to the brutality of previous forms of treatment.Moral treat- ment too contained elements of coercion, force and manipulation, though present in a far more subtle guise.In short, this carefully writ- ten, meticulously researched and intelligently argued book is a major contribution to our under- standing of the origins of Anglo-American institutional psychiatry.