Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
This article argues that within the debates over medical reform which took place throughout the Victorian period, there flourished a variety of models of authority with respect to illness and the body. The controversies surrounding the illness and cure of the journalist, Harriet Martineau, provide a particularly useful vehicle for exploring some of these different models. During a time when many doctors were anxious to establish the medical profession as an authoritative body within British society, Martineau put forward a portrayal of invalidism that gave invalids, especially women, a degree of authority that made many medical men uneasy. By examining the question of the status of the sick individual during this period, and especially Martineau's case, historians can gain a new perspective on broader issues of reform and the status of women in Victorian society.
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
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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
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22 See Autobiography, II, pp. 112–87, on tne production of Deerbrook in 1838.
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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
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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).
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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
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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.
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43 Crabb Robinson to Thomas Robinson, 5 Oct. 1844, Dr Williams's library.
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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.
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52 ‘I care most for the chance of being found capable of clairvoyance, whereby I might obtain that dear knowledge of my condition weh the doctors cannot afford.’ Martineau to Monckton Milnes [July 1844], Houghton papers 1667(1).
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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.
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59 Martineau to Monckton Milnes, 23 May [1845], Houghton papers 1662(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.
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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
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