You could be committed to an asylum for pretty much anything in the late 1800s – and now there’s a document that proves it.
Reading a novel? Laziness? Epileptic fits? All were reason enough to be admitted to one of America’s most notorious asylums.
The list outlines all the reasons patients were committed to West Virginia's Hospital for the Insane (Weston), also called Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, during the two and a half decades between 1864 and 1889. They include 'female disease' and 'suppressed masturbation'.
And god forbid if you had 'women troubles'.
The list was part of America physician Thomas Story Kirkbride's 'vision' to improve medical care for the insane. There was no age limit on who could be admitted into the asylum and child patients were common.
Watch the short video below for a glimpse inside the Weston Asylum. Post continues after video.
The asylum opened in 1864 and operated until it was forcibly closed in 1994. Originally intended to hold 250 people, it became crowded in the 1950s, holding more than 2400 inmates. The number dwindled towards the asylum's later years due to changes in treatments for patients.
The building was later listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1990 and ghost tours and ghost 'hunts' - where the tourists spend all night in the asylum - have operated since 2007.
What do you think of the list? Let us know in the comments.
Click through the gallery below for some images inside the A
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