William Perfect

Who was William Perfect?

William Perfect was a British physician, obstetrician, early psychiatrist, Freemason, and poet.

He was born in Oxfordshire, England, the son of a clergyman in Kent. In 1749, Perfect apprenticed under William Everred, a London surgeon, for seven years and attended lectures by Colin MacKenzie, a Scottish obstetrician. He opened his obstetric practice in Kent in 1756, and he obtained his Medicinae Doctor from St. Andrews University in 1783. He published three editions of his book, Cases in Midwifery, and each edition contained case reports describing in detail the conditions of the patients and the treatments which were administered.

In the 1760s, Perfect began to accommodate mentally ill people in his home, a practice that continued until his death in 1809, when his son George took over until 1815. The West Malling Asylum in Kent continued to function through the 20th century as a principal private mental hospital in the country.

The Annals of Insanity is a series of psychiatric case reports. In the first edition in 1809, Perfect wrote that he was presenting the results of his practice and observations. In advertising the second edition, he offered a revised, corrected, and enlarged book. Cases of mania and depression were described in detail as well as cases of alcoholism, and attempted and successful suicides. The treatments prescribed to patients were recorded in detail, including the medications prescribed by the physician. Electricity was used with good results in some cases. He was convinced of the role of heredity, and recognized the involvement of the brain, its vessels, and its membranes. In one case report, he noted how “gentle treatment contributed much to the case and should always be adopted in preference to rigorous measures … The proper management … is more to be depended upon than medicine, but when both are judicially and humanely blended, the patient has always the best chance of recovery.”