Thomas Arnold (physician)

Thomas Arnold (1742–1816) was an English physician and writer on mental illness.

Arnold was born in Leicester. He was educated at Edinburgh University, where he took the degree of M.D., and became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh. It was whilst he was studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh under William Cullen (1710-1790) that he became a Freemason being initiated in the Lodge Holyrood House (Saint Luke), No.44 in 1763. He practised in Leicester, where he became owner and conductor of a large lunatic asylum.

The Leicester Infirmary was established in 1771 to provide medical care to paupers and the poor. Arnold was appointed physician to the infirmary that year. The need for accommodation of insane people soon became evident and an asylum to house lunatics was constructed in 1782 but remained vacant until 1794 because of financial problems. When the asylum opened for patients, Arnold, James Vaughn, and later Robert Bree were appointed physicians. Arnold and Vaughn, both psychiatrists in Leicester were professional rivals over the years. Arnold’s tenure with the Infirmary and asylum lasted from 1721-1776 and 1784-1815. His son, Thomas Graham Arnold received his Medicinae Doctor (M.D.) at Cambridge University in 1795 and appointed physician to the asylum that same year serving with his father until 1800. Another son, William Withering Arnold, received his M.D. at Cambridge and served on the asylum staff from 1800 to 1840.

Arnold published a two-volume work titled Observations on the Nature, Kinds, Causes and Prevention of Insanity, the first volume appearing in 1782 and the second in 1806. Volume one included chapters on whether insanity was more common in England than elsewhere, chapters on the definition and arrangement of insanity, and a chapter on the dissected brain. Volume two discussed the causes of insanity and its prevention. A third volume on treatment appeared in 1809.

Arnold’s approach to the treatment of insane people was humane. A set of rules for patients’ treatment included firm management, temperance in food and drink, sleep, exercise, regulation of passions, rational views of God and religion, and attention to the imagination. He opposed the use of chains to control; yet used the straitjacket on patients at times. He proposed a new classification of insanity based upon symptoms when causation was unknown. He noted in his books that the operation of mind and body influenced each other.

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