Notes of a visit to continental and british asylums compiled for the asylums committee of the london county council. Presented to, and printed by order of, the Asylums Committee, 16th July 1901

v, [1], 30pp, ff31-33, 34-55pp, ff56, 57-103pp. With a further 17 unnumbered leaves of photographic plates or plans. Original cloth-backed printed paper boards. Somewhat worn, with a split to upper joint at head (and concomitantly, to inner hinge), and marginal loss to foot of upper board. A rare, profusely illustrated report of an extraordinary tour of British and European asylums, undertaken by William Charles Clifford Smith (1855-1931), Asylums Engineer for the London County Council between 1892 and 1924, during Easter (Europe) and Whitsun (Scotland) of 1901. The tour took the author to 'Paris and Dun-sue-Auron.Munich, Wasserberg, Dresden, Leipsic, Berlin, Uchtspringe and Langenfield.Leirneux.Utrecht, Haarlem and Emero-Veldwijk.Gartloch, Woodilee, Larbert, Hartwood, Inverness, Murthly.and Whittingham'. In turn Smith examines, for each institution, the history, situation, building construction, arrangement of bathing and kitchen facilities and the mode of heating, with occasional comments on the numbers, general afflictions and diversions of, and the separation by sex between, the institutions' patients. The numerous illustrations are variously original ('presented to me by the medical directors') or reproductions of other reports both British and Continental. Whilst the tone of the work is largely as one would expect from an engineer, it has perhaps unsurprisingly not escaped from the attitudes of the day; such as the inclusion of the 'Berlin City Asylum for Insane Epileptics'. Rare. Unrecorded by COPAC; OCLC locates just two copies, at Pennsylvania and McGill. Size: Folio.…