The 1845 County Asylums Act made it mandatory for every county in England and Wales to build at least one asylum large enough to contain its 'pauper lunatics'—the official term used for those too poor to afford private care. Soon after, over 130 immense buildings appeared across Britain, housing between 350 and 3,500 patients each. As their gothic towers loomed from secluded hilltops, the terrifying notion of the lunatic asylum lodged itself in the public imagination forever. While they deserve their reputation for the very real horrors inflicted on tens of thousands of patients, either through direct abuse or the many horrific and ultimately discredited 'cures' used in asylums at one time or another , this list attempts to show that not everything about them was negative.

https://listverse.com/2022/09/07/10-popular-misconceptions-about-british-lunatic-asylums/

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