David Skae: Resident Asylum Physician; Scientific General Practitioner of Insanity

David Skae was resident physician of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum (hereafter REA) from 1846 to 1872. Despite a pioneering article about him by Frank Fish, Skae remains a liminal figure in the history of psychiatry. He is usually seen as an asylum-based practical medical instructor of more important figures such as Thomas Clouston. Although he lectured on insanity in the Edinburgh extra-academical school of medicine, it was not his stepping-stone to a university professorship. As a result, Skae’s reputation has fared less well in comparison with others such as Thomas Laycock, professor of the practice of physic at the University of Edinburgh. When placed in the wider historical tradition of British alienists who also taught and wrote, his significance is by no means evident. In the absence of a major textbook or monograph, his scattered journal articles can appear sporadic, if not eclectic. Against this backdrop, descriptions in obituaries of his sterling professional conduct and likeable personal qualities can be read as glosses upon an unspectacular provincial career. Well-known exchanges in the professional journals shortly after Skae’s death also cast a pall over his controversial classification of insanity. Over forty years have passed since Fish’s article and it is time for a fresh look, one that takes into account scholarship in the history of psychiatry since then, especially with respect to asylums and their alienists.