¹ ‘Meeting of Miss Martineau's Admirers at the Rotunda, Blackfriars Road’, Times, 2 Nov. 1842, p. 6.Google Scholar

² See Sanders, V., Reason over passion: Harriet Martineau and the Victorian novel (Brighton, 1986), p. 156.Google Scholar

³ On Martineau's interest in mesmerism see Cooter, R., ‘Dichotomy and denial: mesmerism, medicine and Harriet Martineau’, in Benjamin, M. (ed.), Science and sensibility: gender and scientific enquiry (Oxford, 1991).Google Scholar

⁴ See the caricature in Punch, II (1842), 149, reprinted in Desmond, A., The politics of evolution: morphology, medicine and reform in radical London (Chicago, 1989), p. 167.Google Scholar

⁵ See Barrow, L., ‘Why were most medical heretics at their most confident in the 1840s? (The other side of Victorian medicine)’, in French, R. and Wear, A., eds., British medicine in an age of reform (London, 1991), pp. 165–85Google Scholar; Porter, R., Health for sale: quackery in England 1660–1850 (Manchester, 1989), pp. 222–39.Google Scholar

⁶ On the tensions within the medical profession regarding the proper nature of these reforms see Loudon, I., Medical care and the general practitioner 1750–1850 (Oxford, 1986), pp. 129 passimGoogle Scholar; Peterson, M. Jeanne, The medical profession in mid-Victorian London (Berkeley, 1978)Google Scholar; Waddington, I., ‘General practitioners and consultants in early nineteenth-century England: The sociology of an intra-professional conflict’, in Woodward, J. and Richards, D. (eds.), Health care and popular medicine in nineteenth-century England (London, 1977), pp. 164–8.Google Scholar

⁷ See, for example, ‘Medical etiquette, compiled exclusively for the profession, by Abraham Banks [review]’, Athenaeum (25 April 1840), p. 330.Google Scholar

⁸ Greenhow, E., ‘General practitioners’, London Medical Gazette, XIII (1833–1834), 357Google Scholar. See also Collins, J., ‘Sketches of the present state of the medical profession in the provinces: and more especially in Liverpool and its vicinity’, London Medical Gazette, XIV (1834), 96–9, at p. 98.Google Scholar

⁹ E.g. Janet Browne's fascinating study of Darwin's use of his illness in ‘I could have retched all night: Charles Darwin and his body’, in Chris, Lawrence and Steven, Shapin (eds.), The body of knowledge: the physical presentation of intellectual selves (Chicago, forthcoming).Google Scholar

¹⁰ A classic discussion of this theme may be found in Showalter, E., The female malady: women, madness and English culture 1830–1980 (London, 1987)Google Scholar; on Victorian invalidism specifically see Bailin, M., The sick-room in Victorian fiction: the art of being ill (Cambridge, 1994).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹¹ For biographical material see her Autobiography, 3 vols. (London, 1877)Google Scholar; Miller, F. F., Harriet Martineau (London, 1884)Google Scholar. I am particularly indebted to the approach presented in David, D., Intellectual women and Victorian patriarchy: Harriet Martineau, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and George Eliot (Ithaca, 1987).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹² See Martineau, H., Autobiography, I, 112Google Scholar; idem, Illustrations of political economy (London, 1832).Google Scholar

¹³ Harriet Martineau to Lant Carpenter, n.d. [1820s?], Dorset Records Office, NU. 1/SP2.

¹⁴ See Autobiography, I, 25–70 and passim. This view also informed her view of the Corn Law as a violation of the laws of nature. See also Martineau, H., Dawn Island, a tale (London, 1845)Google Scholar; and Martineau, H., The factory controversy, a warning against ‘meddling legislation’ (London, 1855).Google Scholar

¹⁵ Martineau was also sought out by members of parliament for advice on how to present their proposals, and Henry Brougham gave her access to confidential papers when she popularized his tax reforms. See Martineau, H., Illustrations of taxation (London, 1834).Google Scholar

¹⁶ M. Westman, ‘Memorial’, in Martineau, , Autobiography, ed. Westman, , III, 88.Google Scholar

¹⁷ [Scrope, G. P.], ‘Miss Martineau's monthly novels’, Quarterly Review, IL (1833), 136–52, at 136.Google Scholar

¹⁸ ‘Miss Marcet and Miss Martineau’, Edinburgh Review, LVII (1833), 3–39, at p. 3.Google Scholar

¹⁹ E.g. Martineau, H., How to observe. Morals and manners (London, 1837).Google Scholar

²⁰ E.g. Robertson, E., ‘Consistency’, North of England Magazine, II (London, 1843), 355.Google Scholar

²¹ Autobiography, II, 110.

²² See Autobiography, II, pp. 112–87, on tne production of Deerbrook in 1838.

²³ See Sanders, , Reason over passion, pp. 70–1.Google Scholar

²⁴ Cooter, , ‘Dichotomy and denial’.Google Scholar

²⁵ For visual portrayals of the nineteenth-century invalid see Wellcome Archives, negative L13909, slide 8909; and Pho. 12 194, neg. M 8622, Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London. In each scene the invalid gazed off into the distance, lost in contemplation or preoccupation with her internal malaise, accompanied by two carers.

²⁶ A. Jameson, (ed.), MrsSteuart, Erskine, Letters and friendships (1812–1860) (London, 1915), p. 207.Google Scholar

²⁷ H. Martineau to R. Monckton Milnes, 28 May [1843?], Houghton papers, Trinity College, Cambridge 16²⁷⁽⁶⁾.

²⁸ Martineau to Monckton Milnes, 28 May [1843?], Houghton papers 16²⁷⁽⁵⁾.

²⁹ Jameson, A., Letters and friendships, p. 210.Google Scholar

³⁰ For some sense of the constituency of her frequent visitors, see the extracts of her journal published in Westman's, ‘Memorial’, pp. 227–31.Google Scholar

³¹ See the letters of this period written to Fanny Wedgwood in Arbuckle, E. S. (ed.), Harriet Martineau's letters to Fanny Wedgwood (Stanford, 1983)Google Scholar, and Jane Carlyle's comments to Jeannie Welsh, 26 Jan. 1845, in Ryals, C. L. and Fielding, K. J. (eds.), Collected letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle, 18 vols. (Durham, 1977–), XVIII, 34–5.Google Scholar

³² The contemporary impression of Sick-room's popularity should, however, be placed in the context of the low sales of Martineau's works during her illness. Sick-room's original print-run was 1,250 copies; it was released at the beginning of 1844, and had sold out by the end of February. See E. Moxon to H. Martineau, 6 Jan. 1844, Martineau papers, Birmingham University Library, HM 1129, 1130 and 1139.

³³ Martineau to Monckton Milnes, 22 Dec. [1843?], Houghton papers 16⁵⁰⁽⁵⁾.

³⁴ [Martineau, H.], Life in the sick room. Essays by an invalid (London, 1844), p. 45.Google Scholar

³⁵ Martineau to Monckton Milnes, n.d., ‘Saturday’ [1843?], Houghton papers 16⁵⁴⁽³⁾.

³⁶ Sick-room, p. 64.

³⁷ Sick-room, p. 211.

³⁸ The following pamphlets give some indication of the contemporary literature: Massingberd, F. C., Hints on the service for the visitation of the sick (Torquay, 1845)Google Scholar; Mylne, G. W., The sick room, or, meditations and prayers, for sick persons (London, 1850)Google Scholar; Sick chamber companion (London, 1843)Google Scholar. Sick room companion (London, 1844).Google Scholar

³⁹ For instance, Harriet Martineau to Edward Bulwer Lytton, 26 Jan. 1841, 8 Feb. 1844, Bulwer Lytton papers, Hertfordshire Records Office, D/EK C4/5–20.

⁴⁰ Monckton Milnes and Garrison were both moved to write poems dedicated to her. Pope-Hennessy, , Monckton Milnes: the years of promise 1809–1851 (London, 1949), p. 128Google Scholar, and Westman, , ‘Memorial’, pp. 250–1.Google Scholar

⁴¹ See Martineau to Henry Crabb Robinson, 14 Dec. 1843, Dr Williams's library; and Charles Knight to Martineau, HM 1109, Martineau papers, Birmingham University Library.

⁴² Martineau to Crabb Robinson, 14 Dec. 1843, Dr Williams's Library.

⁴³ Crabb Robinson to Thomas Robinson, 5 Oct. 1844, Dr Williams's library.

⁴⁴ Horn, R. H., ‘Harriet Martineau and Mrs. Jameson’, New spirit of tke age (London, 1907, 1st edn 1844), pp. 287–300, 287–8.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ ‘Life in the sick-room’, Tail's Edinburgh Magazine (Jan. 1844), pp. 131–5, 131Google Scholar; see also ‘Life in a sick-room’, Westminster Review, XLI (1844), 608–11, 609Google Scholar, and ‘Thoughts of an invalid’, Chambers' Edinburgh Journal (17 Feb. 1844), pp. 107–10.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Martineau to Crabb Robinson, 3 Jan. 1844, Dr Williams's library. Martineau was quoting from a book (which I have not been able to find) by a Mrs Stanley, possibly Emma Stanley, wife of Edward Stanley (1799–1849), bishop of Norwich.

⁴⁷ ‘Life in a sick-room’, Literary Gazette (20 Jan. 1844), p. 39.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ ‘Life in a sick-room’, British and Foreign Medical Review, XVIII (1844), 472–81.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Ibid. p. 477.

⁵⁰ Ibid. p. 478.

⁵¹ Thomson, A. T. T., The domestic management of the sick-room, necessary, in aid of medical treatment, for the care of diseases (London, 1841), pp. 105, 116, 112Google Scholar. Gregory is cited throughout the text as an ideal clinician.

⁵² ‘I care most for the chance of being found capable of clairvoyance, whereby I might obtain that dear knowledge of my condition w^eh the doctors cannot afford.’ Martineau to Monckton Milnes [July 1844], Houghton papers 16⁶⁷⁽¹⁾.

⁵³ Martineau to Monckton Milnes, 31 May [1843?], Houghton papers 16²⁹⁽¹⁾.

⁵⁴ Parssinen, T., ‘Mesmeric performers’, Victorian Studies, XXI (1977), 87–104Google Scholar; Winter, A., ‘Ethereal epidemic: mesmerism and the introduction of ether anaesthesia to early Victorian London’, Social history of medicine (1991), pp. 1–27Google Scholar; Winter, A., ‘Mesmerism and popular culture in early Victorian England’, History of science, 32:96 (1994), 317–43CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed. Palfreman, J., ‘Mesmerism and the English medical profession: a study of a conflict’, Ethics in science and medicine, IV (1977), 51–66.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Martineau to Monckton Milnes, n.d. ‘Tuesday’, Houghton papers 16⁷⁷; Martineau to Monckton Milnes, n.d., Houghton papers 16⁸⁰.

⁵⁶ 2 Feb. 1845, Houghton 16⁶¹. Similarly, Martineau to George William Frederick Howard (Morpeth), 4 July 1845, Howard family papers, Castle Howard, J19/1/39/70.

⁵⁷ Martineau to Monckton Milnes, 15 Dec. 1844, Houghton Papers 16⁸¹. See also Macpherson, G., Memoirs of the life of Anna Jameson (London, 1878), pp. 205–9.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Articles in the press include ‘Miss Martineau’, The Times (20 Nov. 1844), p. 6Google Scholar; ‘Miss Martineau and Mesmerism’, The Times (25 Nov. 1844), p. 8Google Scholar; ‘Miss Martineau and Mesmerism’, The Times (30 Nov. 1844), p.3Google Scholar. Charles Darwin's cousin W. D. Fox was one of many who contemplated a visit. See Darwin to Fox, 20 Dec. 1844 and 13 Feb. 1845, Fox papers, Christ's College, Cambridge. Others were William Gregory, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh and Henry Atkinson, with whom Martineau embarked on a notorious partnership in materialist philosophy. See Atkinson, H. G. and Martineau, H., Letters on the laws of man's nature and development (London 1851).Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Martineau to Monckton Milnes, 23 May [1845], Houghton papers 16^62(1−2); Martineau to Monckton Milnes, n.d., Houghton Papers 16⁷⁷.

⁶⁰ [Brodie, B. C.?], ‘A few words by way of comment on Miss Martineau's statement’, Athenaeum (7 Dec. 1844), pp. 1198–1200Google Scholar. In a letter to Fox, Darwin identified Brodie as the author of the piece. Darwin to Fox, 20 Dec. 1844, Fox Papers, Christ's College, Cambridge. However, this is the only evidence I have found for the authorship of the review. The copy of the Athenaeum held at the City University of London, which is annotated with the names of many authors of articles in this period, does not identify the author of this piece; and Martineau herself referred only to the journal's editor. See Martineau to E. Moxon, ‘Monday’ [December 1844], MSS Eng. Lett. d.2, fo. 87, Bodleian Library.

⁶¹ There is an increasing literature on the politics of diagnosis and therapy in hysteria, e.g. Russett, C. E., Sexual science: the Victorian construction of womanhood (Cambridge, Mass., 1984)Google Scholar; Masson, J. M., A dark science: women, sexuality and psychiatry in the nineteenth century (New York, 1987)Google Scholar; and Shuttleworth, S., ‘Female circulation: Medical discourse and popular advertising in the mid-Victorian era’, in Jacobus, M., Keller, E. F. and Shuttleworth, S. (eds.), Body politics: women and the discourses of science (New York, 1990), pp. 47–68Google Scholar. The latter provides particularly interesting points for comparison with Martineau's case.

⁶² [Brodie, ?], ‘A few words’, p. 1199Google Scholar. See also ‘The absurdities of mesmerism’, London Medical Gazette, II (1843–1844), 705Google Scholar, anc ‘Clairvoyance’, Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal, IX (1845), 70–2, at p. 70.Google Scholar

⁶³ This was because a variety of nervous affections could be manifest at distant points of the body and appear to be of local origin when they were actually disorders of the brain, spine or nerves.

⁶⁴ Brodie, B. C., Lectures illustrative of certain local nervous affections (London, 1837), p. 7.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ And even some of the scientific sceptics were loath to reject mesmerism entirely. For instance, Darwin counselled ‘keep some cats… & do get some mesmerizer to make experiments upon them.’ Darwin to Fox, 20 Dec. 1844, Fox papers.

⁶⁶ ‘Pathologist’, in ‘Correspondents’, Lancet, II (1844), 304.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Greenhow, T., Facts in the Case of Miss H—M— (London, 1845).Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Miller, B., Elizabeth Barrett to Miss Mitford; the unpublished letters of Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford (London, 1954), III, 62.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Martineau to Morpeth, Jan. 1845, Howard papers J/19/1/39/15.

⁷⁰ Martineau, H., ‘Preface’, Letters on mesmerism, 2nd edn (London, 1845).Google Scholar

⁷¹ On these, the following Athenaeum articles are representative: ‘Miss Martineau in reply to the Athenaeum’ (4 Jan. 1845), p. 14Google Scholar; ‘Miss Martineau and mesmerism’ (15 March 1845), pp. 268–9Google Scholar; (29 March 1845), pp. 290–1; (5 April 1845), pp. 333–5; (12 April 1845), p. 361.

⁷² See ‘Discovery of the island of Mesmeria’, Mew Monthly Magazine, LXXIII (1845), 125–9.Google Scholar

⁷³ See ‘Discovery of the island of Mesmeria’.

⁷⁴ Relevant literature on other reforms of sick-room culture includes Porter, D. and Porter, R., In sickness and in health: the British experience 1650–1850 (London, 1988)Google Scholar and Smith, F. B., Florence Nightingale: reputation and power (London, 1982).Google Scholar

⁷⁵ For instance, Elizabeth Barrett and Mary Russell Mitford. See Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and The life of Mary Russell Mitford, related in a selection from her letters to her friends.

⁷⁶ The literature on the medical treatment of women for this period (apart from works already discussed) includes Poovey, M., Uneven developments: the ideological work of gender in mid-Victorian England (Chicago, 1988)CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Moscucci, O., The science of woman: gynaecology and gender in England 1800–1929 (Cambridge, 1990)Google Scholar. On doctor/patient relationships and the patient's ‘voice’ see Jewson, N., ‘The disappearance of the sick man in medical cosmology 1770–1870’, Sociology, X (1976), 225–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Fissell, M., ‘The disappearance of the patient's narrative and the invention of hospital medicine’Google Scholar, in French, and Wear, , British medicine, pp. 92–109.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ For Martineau's experiments see Martineau to Monckton Milnes, 27 October 1844, Houghton papers 16⁷⁸; 23 May [1845], 16⁶²⁽²⁾. On the ways in which one medical reformer worked to transform a servant into a scientific apparatus see Winter, A., ‘Mesmerism and popular culture in early Victorian England’.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Richardson, , Death, dissection and the destitute.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Toole, B. A. (ed.), Ada, the enchantress of numbers: a selection from the letters of Lord Byron's daughter and her description of the first computer (Mill Valley, California, 1992), p. 291Google Scholar; Showalter, E., The female malady: women, madness and English culture 1830–1980 (London, 1985), pp. 62–6Google Scholar; Smith, F. B., Florence Nightingale: reputation and power (New York, 1982)Google Scholar; Bailin, , The sick-room in Victorian fiction, pp. 30ff.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Richardson, , Death, dissection and the destitute (London, 1987).Google Scholar

⁸¹ For an example of such a project see the discussion of William Carpenter in Winter, A., ‘“The island of Mesmeria”: the politics of mesmerism in early Victorian Britain’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge, 1993), chapter 5Google Scholar. Carpenter was one of many who drew close links between their human sciences and their educational views, but insufficient work has yet been done to develop a composite picture.

⁸² Jordanova, L., ‘Has the social history of medicine come of age?’, Historical Journal, XXXVI (1993). 437–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar