Conolly, John

J. Conolly was born in the small town of Market Rasen in Lincolnshire in an Irish family. Before choosing a medical career, he served for 4 years as a lieutenant in the Cambridgeshire police and lived in France for a year. In 1821, John Conolly graduated from the University of Edinburgh . In the same year he defended his doctoral dissertation "On the state of consciousness in insanity and melancholy " and received the title of Doctor of Medicine ^[1] . He then successfully practices medicine in Lewis, Chichester and Stratford-upon-Avon . In 1827 ^[1] J. Conolly became a professor of practical medicine at University College London . There, he unsuccessfully tries to establish a department of psychiatry. In 1830 he published the book "Symptoms of Insanity " ( Eng. Indications of Insanity . After that, J. Conolly leaves London and settles in Warwick .

In 1832, together with Sir C. Hastings, and Sir J. Forbes he establishes a small medical organization (Provincial Medical and Surgical Association) to raise the level of provincial healthcare. His brother William Bryce Conolly is placed under her treasurer and secretary of the Charitable Foundation for Widows and Orphans ^[2] . Over time, the organization's activities expanded, the number of members increased, and it became the British Medical Association (BMA) .

J. Conolly and J. Forbes in 1836 founded the British and Foreign Medical Review, or the Quarterly Journal of Practical Medicine, which they co-authored until 1839 ^[3] . This was the first publication of its kind, designed to share the latest medical knowledge. The review was widely read in Europe and America , it promoted modern methods of treatment and increased the authority of British medicine. The BMA library still contains a complete collection of its volumes.

On June 1, ^[1] 1839, John Conolly was appointed a resident physician at the Hanwell Mental Hospital. While in this position, he presented his basic principles of non- restraint ( English no restraint ) in the treatment of mentally ill.

In 1844, J. Conolly ceased to be a resident, but until 1852 he continued to be a medical consultant.

In 1852, John Conolly, along with his friends Charles Hastings and John Forbes, was awarded the title of Doctor of Civil Law.

In 1856, he published the fundamental work "Treatment of the mentally ill without mechanical measures of restraint" ^[4] .

John Conolly died in 1866 in Hanwell, where he held the Lawn House private psychiatric hospital.

When John Conolly became the head physician of the Hanwell Psychiatric Hospital, from the first days he decided to “eradicate all ill-treatment of patients” ^[1] . He was especially influenced by the measures taken in this area by Eduard Charlesworth and Gardiner Gill at the psychiatric hospital in Lincoln . He was personally acquainted with them and corresponded, which strengthened confidence in the correctness of their ideas.

For the eradication of physical violence, J. Conolly began very energetically. Having assumed the position of head physician on July 1, he immediately demanded to report to him on all cases of applying “restraint measures”. And if at the beginning of July such measures were noted 18 out of 800 patients, then on August 12 only 1 such measure was taken, and on September 12 they stopped altogether ^[1] . Devices like a straitjacket and a straitjacket were replaced by holding excited patients with their hands or placing them in a special insulator with mattress walls.

John Conolly did not limit himself to applying the principle of "no restraint" in his hospital. He began actively promoting this idea in the press . In addition, in 1842 a questionnaire was sent to hospitals to interview their staff about the use of mechanical fixation measures. Its results were divided into 2 groups. The first was an absolute opponent of constraint, the second - for mechanical fixation, but only in extreme cases ^[1] . Opponents of “no restraint” were not found among the respondents ^[1] . The result of the questionnaire was the convening of a commission in 1844 , which concluded that the issue of introducing the principles of non-constraint comes down exclusively to financing ^[1] . The placement of patients in the isolation ward can only be resorted to under the direct instructions of a doctor and for strict indications: an epileptic seizure or “violent mania” ( psychomotor agitation ). In 1854, the next commission finally abolished mechanical restraint, including insulators.

Thus, it can be considered that in 1839 the “ Pinel era” ended, which removed the chains of mind, and the “Conolly era” began, which removed straitjackets from them ^[1] . The next era in psychiatry began when all the psychiatric hospitals in Europe canceled the last measure of restraint of patients - isolators.