A doctor's dilemma: the case of William Harvey's mentally retarded nephew

In June 1637 William Harvey petitioned the Court of Wards and Liveries, a legal incompetency court in early modern England, for a grant of the custody of his mentally disabled nephew, William Fowke. 'Idiocy' and 'lunacy' were the two medico-legal categories for insanity used by the Court and Harvey requested that his nephew be inspected for idiocy. However, the legal and administrative history of the Court indicates that in the 1630s idiocy (but not lunacy) grants were prejudicial to the assets and economic security of retarded persons. Since petitioners' wishes more than clinical status, usually determined the diagnostic label assigned to referred individuals, idiocy grants were not sought by persons of some social standing. Harvey's idiocy referral probably reflects his allegiance to his own clinical observations in the face of opposing social norms and family advantage.