These photographs, taken at Salpetriere Hospital in Paris by a team led by Albert Lone, provide a unique insight into treatment of people with mental illnesses in the 1880s.
Each portrait has a small pin hole in the top left corner, suggesting they were attached to a wall or had a loop of wire holding them together. They would have been used to help student doctors identify patients or illnesses, including dementia, mania, lunacy and melancholia.
Photographs of patients in asylums, where patients had varied conditions including epilepsy and STDs, were common in the 1880s. And portraits of mental health patients were also common in Britain - where the tradition began in the 1850s.
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| This woman's picture was marked 'idiotie'. |
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| This man's pic was labelled 'dementia'. |
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| This woman was being treated for 'mania'. |
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| This French lady was also a patient for 'mania'. |
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| And this man was in the asylum to be treated for 'dementia'. |
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| While this distressed woman was being treated for 'melancholy'. |
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| This woman, dressed in a neck scarf, was also a dementia patient. |
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| This bearded gentleman was also a dementia patient. |
(Images: one mans Treasure/Exclusivepix Media)
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