Background
John Conolly was born at Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, of an Irish family, on the 27th of May 1794.
John Conolly was born at Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, of an Irish family, on the 27th of May 1794.
John Conolly graduated M. D. at Edinburgh in 1821.
After practising at Lewes, Chichester and Stratford-on-Avon successively, he was appointed professor of the practice of medicine at University College, London, in 1828.
In 1830 John Conolly published a work on the Indications of Insanity, and soon afterwards settled at Warwick.
In later years this grew in importance and membership, and finally became the British Medical Association.
In 1839 he was elected resident physician to the Middlesex County Asylum at HanwelL In this capacity he made his name famous by carrying out in its entirety and on a large scale the principle of non-restraint in the treatment of the insane.
In 1844 he ceased to be resident physician at Hanwell, but remained visiting physician until 1852.
His works include Construction and Government of Lunatic Asylums (1847); The Treatment of the Insane without Mechanical Restraints (1856); and an Essay on Hamlet (1863).
Conolly married Elizabeth Collins, by whom he had four children.
