Graeme Newman (Editor)), Charles Mercier (Author)

In 1894, Dr. Charles Mercier sat down and wrote the single most thorough, most humorless, and — accidentally — most hilarious operations manual of the Victorian age: a complete instruction guide for running a lunatic asylum.

He was not joking. That's what makes it so funny.

Inside you'll find firm, unblinking rulings on corridor widths, the correct pitch of a drainage floor, how far apart the beds in a dormitory ought to be, the precise duties of a kitchen clerk, how to test food for adulteration, what a chaplain is and is not obliged to do, and the delicate diplomatic art of writing an annual report that satisfies the Commissioners in Lunacy without saying anything interesting at all. It is, in the truest sense, a nineteenth-century employee handbook — written with the complete sincerity of a man debating corridor widths as though they were points of theology.

It is also, in its own quiet way, a genuinely important document of early psychiatric reform: a serious argument, from inside the institution, that "no restriction is justifiable that is not required by the circumstances of the individual case." Mercier was working to drag asylum management out of the era of chains and toward something resembling human dignity — even as he remained, in every visible way, a man entirely of 1894.

This new edition restores Mercier's original text — correcting the date long misattributed as 1918 — resets it for modern readers, and adds a new introduction by Graeme R. Newman situating the book, its author, and its unintentional comedy for the twenty-first century.

What's inside:

• The complete original text of Mercier's 1894 classic, unabridged and unaltered

• A new introduction on Mercier, Victorian asylum reform, and why the book still lands as comedy

• 26 chapters covering housing, food and clothing, occupation and amusement, detention and care, and staff — the entire operational anatomy of a Victorian institution

For readers who enjoy:

• The history of medicine, psychiatry, and institutional reform

• Victorian architecture and design

• Deadpan bureaucratic writing, workplace-manual humor, and primary sources that are funnier than they meant to be.

By Dr. Chance Miller

Especially in areas where it has been authorized for medical and adult use, marijuana consumption is increasing. From chronic pain to anxiety, insomnia, and even appetite loss, people all around are finding its therapeutic benefits. More and more patients are using medical marijuana for relief. A key component of cardiovascular health is blood pressure— the pressure of blood against the walls of your arteries. Consistently elevated blood pressure, or hypertension, can cause major health problems, including heart disease, stroke, and renal damage. Understanding how marijuana affects blood pressure has grown more crucial given its rising popularity—particularly for those who might already have hypertension or heart issues. This article will help you decide whether marijuana could be a good fit for patients with blood pressure issues, as well as how it might affect heart health and the connection between marijuana and blood pressure. Whether you are thinking about medical marijuana for a chronic ailment or just interested in its effects on your health, this knowledge is essential for making an informed choice.

How Marijuana Affects the Body Before knowing how marijuana affects blood pressure, one must first appreciate its more general interaction with the human body.

TeleLeaf. 2025. 5p.

By Centre for Justice Innovation

For some women, substance use can cause significant harm and problems for themselves and for those around them. Problems with substance use among women have well-established links to gendered experiences of trauma, abuse and exploitation, and women deserve to receive the kind of support that is appropriate for them. Our previous research identified that many of the mainstream, mixed-gender treatment services we looked at were not working well for women. We found evidence that women were accessing treatment services in spaces that exposed them to risks of abuse or exploitation, and that did not give them space to explore their gendered experiences. Our research indicated that treatment services were not able to effectively respond to the needs of women with trauma. This project set out to explore what a better system of substance use treatment would look like from the perspective of women in treatment. Working with women’s centre and treatment provider The Nelson Trust, we spoke to women accessing treatment in seven different locations, and asked about their experiences of a range of treatment provision and what they wanted from treatment services. We explored their perceptions of effective treatment and what support they would want women to be able to access in an ideal system. The women who participated identified six key characteristics of effective treatment: 1. Effective treatment is holistic. It considers and responds to all of a woman’s needs and strengths, including issues like domestic abuse, mental health, offending and children’s social care involvement. 2. Effective treatment is compassionate and respectful. It respects women’s dignity and agency, and responds to their individual needs and experiences with understanding rather than judgement. 3. Effective treatment is person-led and non-coercive. It enables women to determine what treatment and recovery looks like for themselves and to work towards it in their own time, without threat of further scrutiny or punitive measures. 4. Effective treatment addresses the root causes of substance use problems. It supports women to work through drivers of their substance use, heal from past traumas and have their wider needs met. 5. Effective treatment is trauma-responsive. It embeds understanding of trauma and shame throughout, following principles of safety, collaboration and transparency. It does not label women or discharge them when they go quiet. 6. Effective treatment builds strength and resilience. It promotes women’s agency through interventions aimed at promoting self-worth, confidence and acceptance, providing them with new skills and ways of coping. Delivering an effective treatment system requires a significant shift in the way treatment services are commissioned and managed. Current funding models have usually promoted the delivery of large-scale, one-size-fits-all provision in isolation from other services. Whole system approaches – where all services with a role in supporting women are integrated into a cohesive system of care – represent an alternative model that could more effectively address women’s needs. Local areas seeking to implement whole system approaches face significant challenges in breaking down funding silos, supporting information sharing and securing sufficient resources. One solution may be found in place-based approaches to funding and commissioning – approaches that work at local or regional levels to combine funding from multiple sources to co-commission a range of services for women. We therefore call on central government to remove the structural barriers inhibiting the growth of whole system approaches, and for local commissioners to explore place-based approaches as a way of implementing more whole system ways of working. Adopting these new approaches would not only improve the efficacy and efficiency of services, but it would also, more importantly, enable women to lead fulfilling lives. 

London: Centre for Justice Innovation, 2025. 56p.