Guest treasure: Aberdeen Royal Lunatic Asylum Lunacy Forms

This month's Guest Treasure was kindly selected by NHS Grampian Archives who hold fascinating and varied collections of historical health records from across the North East of Scotland.

Aberdeen Royal Lunatic Asylum has changed a lot since it opened in 1800, as has the way in which patients were admitted. Following the passing of the Lunacy (Scotland) Act in 1857, people who were being admitted had to have been assessed by two different doctors who would set out why that person's symptoms merited admission to the Asylum. These were recorded on Medical Certificates - or 'Lunacy Forms' as they are called in these volumes.

The forms give background information on the patient - their name, age, address, next of kin and so on, before recording the two doctor's statements. Supporting case notes also survive, which give further information on the individual patients, but there are also surviving annual reports which can be found in Aberdeen Central Library. These detail the changes which happened in the hospital each year, give statistics on the number of patients admitted, and provide information on how well the hospital was being run.

View the Lunacy forms in greater detail on our touchscreens.