Deelarchief H22/HT/MTU - HORTON HOSPITAL: MALARIA THERAPY UNIT

1.72 linear metres

H22/HT/MTU 1889-1979 subfonds 1.72 linear metres Malaria Therapy Unit , Horton Hospital x Mott Clinic x Ministry of Health Malaria Laboratory x Malaria Reference Laboratory

General Paralysis of the Insane (GPI) sufferers accounted for about 1 in 12 of mental hospital admissions. Patients with this illness would show signs of sudden psychotic symptoms, with unusual eye and muscular reflexes, speech and hearing problems, seizures and dementia, leading to incapacitation and death. The cause of GPI was an invasion of the central nervous system by syphilitic bacteria. In 1917 a new treatment was developed which involved deliberately infecting GPI patients with malaria, because the high fever which is a symptom of malaria raised the body temperature to as high as 40ºC and killed the bacteria causing the GPI. The cure was discovered after an outbreak of malaria in a mental hospital left many patients unexpectedly cured of their GPI.

In 1923 some of the mental hospitals run by the London County Council (LCC), including Horton Hospital, started to trial the malaria therapy. In 1925 it was decided to set up a specialist centre for London just to provide this malaria therapy for GPI patients. The centre, together with a separate specialist laboratory for the study of malaria, was established at Horton.

By 1935 about 700 patients had been treated. 75% were said to have recovered completely. The centre was named the Mott Clinic in the late 1920s, named after the Director of the Central Laboratory and Pathologist to the LCC Mental Hospitals, Sir Fredric Mott (1855-1926).

The development of antibiotics such as penicillin after World War Two reduced the need for malaria therapy. The laboratory was instead turned into a malaria research centre. The Mott Clinic became known as the Ministry of Health Malaria Laboratory, until 1952 when it became the Malaria Reference Laboratory. The Laboratory later moved from Epsom to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, becoming known as the Health Protection Agency Malaria Reference Laboratory.

ACC/3798

Records of the Malaria Therapy Unit, Horton Hospital, including patient casebooks, 1931-1962; patient ward books, 1949-1950; malaria documentation books, 19-- -1966; indigenous malaria subject files arranged by location, 1917 - 1962; Public Health Laboratory Service correspondence and malaria case questionnaires, 1966-1979; mosquito surveys of places in Britain arranged by place and mosquito nuisance subject files, 1920-1968 and research files, 1910 - 1963, including notes on best practice in malaria therapy, lecture scripts, malaria on ships, mosquito identification and control, correspondence, cuttings from newspapers and journals and reviews of work by researchers at the Unit.

In sections according to catalogue.

These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information are subject to access restrictions under the UK Data Protection Act, 1998.

Copyright: Depositor
English

Fit

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

See H22/HT for the records of Horton Hospital. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine holds further records of the Mott Clinic and the Malaria Research Laboratory at Horton, 1939-1967. The Wellcome Library holds correspondence regarding the Mott Clinic, Horton Hospital, Epsom, within the collections of P G Shute (WTI/PGS) and PCC Garnham (PP/PCG).

See article by Henry R Rollin - "The Horton Malaria Laboratory, Epsom Surrey (1925-1975)", published in the Journal of Medical Biography 1994: 2: 94-97.

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997. February 2009 Bacterial infections and mycoses People Scientific facilities Lunatics People by roles Research laboratories Paralysis Treponemal infections Hospitals Psychiatric hospitals Bacterial infections Syphilis Infectious diseases Malaria Patients Psychiatric hospital patients Health services Medical institutions History Personal history Medical history Medical sciences Experimental medicine Pathology Diseases Spirochaetales infections Malaria Therapy Unit , Horton Hospital x Mott Clinic x Ministry of Health Malaria Laboratory x Malaria Reference Laboratory Public Health Laboratory Service London England UK Western Europe Epsom Surrey Hertfordshire Europe

ACC/3798

Records of the Malaria Therapy Unit, Horton Hospital, including patient casebooks, 1931-1962; patient ward books, 1949-1950; malaria documentation books, 19-- -1966; indigenous malaria subject files arranged by location, 1917 - 1962; Public Health Laboratory Service correspondence and malaria case questionnaires, 1966-1979; mosquito surveys of places in Britain arranged by place and mosquito nuisance subject files, 1920-1968 and research files, 1910 - 1963, including notes on best practice in malaria therapy, lecture scripts, malaria on ships, mosquito identification and control, correspondence, cuttings from newspapers and journals and reviews of work by researchers at the Unit.

In sections according to catalogue.

These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information are subject to access restrictions under the UK Data Protection Act, 1998.

Copyright: Depositor

• Engels

• Latijn

English

See H22/HT for the records of Horton Hospital. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine holds further records of the Mott Clinic and the Malaria Research Laboratory at Horton, 1939-1967. The Wellcome Library holds correspondence regarding the Mott Clinic, Horton Hospital, Epsom, within the collections of P G Shute (WTI/PGS) and PCC Garnham (PP/PCG).

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

• Engels