Insanity: Its Causes and Prevention by Henry Putnam Stearns is about the study of mental illness from a late 19th-century perspective. Excerpt: "CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY. PAGE. Increase of interest in the subject of insanity, resulting from, first, more intelligent views concerning its nature; and, second, the obligation to make provision for the care of the insane in a larger measure than for other unfortunate classes—Results in the way of hospitals—Asylum attendants—Change in the modes of management, and care of the insane 3 CHAPTER II. INCREASE OF INSANITY. Indications which point to the probability of its increase in a greater ratio than that of the population: (1) about the general conditions of society; (2) in occupations…"