Richard Poole (physician)

Richard Poole (1783–1871) was a Scottish physician,^[1] psychiatrist, and phrenologist.^[2]

Life

Poole was born in Edinburgh, though from an English background.^[3] He graduated M.D. at the University of St Andrews in 1805.^[1] He was editor of the New Edinburgh Review, and published articles promoting phrenology in it, in the early 1820s;^[4] it existed 1821 to 1823.^[5] Poole was also first editor of the Phrenological Journal.^[6] Poole joined the editorial staff of the Encyclopædia Edinensis under James Millar.^[7]

Royal Lunatic Asylum, Montrose, in 1840.

From 1820 Poole campaigned for a new infirmary in Edinburgh.^[8] In 1825 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.^[3] In the late 1830s he was a pioneer advocate of mental health reform,^[9] and in 1838 he became superintendent of the Montrose Asylum, succeeding W. A. F. Browne. He remained at Montrose until 1845. He then kept a private asylum at Middlefield, Aberdeenshire.^[3]

Poole died at Coupar Angus.^[3]

Works

• An Essay on Education (1825).^[10] In this work, from the Encyclopædia Edinensis, Poole acknowledges help in early life from Archibald Alison. He advocated education in cases of mental retardation.^[11]
• A Letter to Andrew Duncan, Senior, M.D. ... Regarding the Establishment of a New Infirmary (1825).^[12] Pamphlet addressed to Andrew Duncan, the elder on the infirmary question; Duncan replied to the agitation for a new infirmary in a letter to William Fettes.^[13]
• Report on Examination of Medical Practitioners (1833)
• Memoranda regarding the Royal Lunatic Asylum, Infirmary, and Dispensary, of Montrose (1841)^[14]

He is credited with dramas, including "Willie Armstrong" performed in Edinburgh in 1829.^[15][16]

Poole also wrote for the Edinburgh Encyclopædia and Encyclopædia Britannica.^[3] A list of publications appeared in Scottish Notes and Queries.^[17]

Family

An epitaph gives Jane Caird as Poole's wife; it also records his dates as 1781 to 1870.^[18] Their children included Samuel Wordsworth Poole, a physician and episcopal clergyman.^[19]

References

1. Roger Cooter (1984). The Cultural Meaning of Popular Science: Phrenology and the Organization of Consent in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Cambridge University Press. p. 314 note 66. ISBN 978-0-521-22743-8.
2. Roger Cooter (1984). The Cultural Meaning of Popular Science: Phrenology and the Organization of Consent in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Cambridge University Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-521-22743-8.
3. UM-MEDSEARCH Gateway (1870). The Lancet. J. Onwhyn. pp. 467–8.
4. Hewett Cottrell Watson (1836). Statistics of phrenology: being a sketch of the progress and present state of that science in the British Islands. p. 194.
5. James J. Sack (1993). From Jacobite to Conservative: Reaction and Orthodoxy in Britain, C. 1760–1832. Cambridge University Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-521-43266-5.
6. R. J. Cooter (1976). "Phrenology and British alienists, c. 1825–1845. Part I: Converts to a doctrine". Medical History. 20 (1): 1–21 (5–6). doi:10.1017/s0025727300021761. PMC 1081688. PMID 765647.
7. James Millar (1827) Encyclopedia Edinensis; or, Dictionary of arts, sciences, and literature vol. 1, p. vi.
8. Charles W. J. Withers (2001). Geography, Science and National Identity: Scotland Since 1520. Cambridge University Press. p. 170. ISBN 978-0-521-64202-6.
9. M. Barfoot (2009). "The 1815 Act to Regulate Madhouses in Scotland: A reinterpretation". Medical History. 53 (1): 57–76, note 96. doi:10.1017/s0025727300003318. PMC 2629162. PMID 19190749.
10. Richard Poole (1825). An essay on education, applicable to children in general;. Waugh and Innes.
11. Journal of psychological medicine. 1855. p. 587.
12. Richard Poole; Andrew Duncan (1825). A Letter to Andrew Duncan, Senior, M.D. ... Regarding the Establishment of a New Infirmary. Archibald Constable.
13. The Lancet. Elsevier. 1827. pp. 416–8.
14. Richard Poole (1841). Memoranda regarding the Royal Lunatic Asylum, Infirmary, and Dispensary, of Montrose. J. & D. Nichol.
15. Ralston Inglis (1868). The Dramatic Writers of Scotland. G.D. Mackellar. pp. 95–.
16. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1829). The Edinburgh literary journal: or, Weekly register of criticism and belles lettres. Ballantyne. p. 42.
17. John Bulloch, John Alexander Henderson (editors), Scottish Notes and Queries (1888), p. 40; archive.org.
18. Alexander Macdonald Munro, Records of Old Aberdeen vol. 2 (1909), p. 248; archive.org.
19. David M. Bertie (2000). Scottish Episcopal Clergy, 1689–2000. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 403. ISBN 978-0-567-08746-1.