Pliney Earle

1809-1892. One of this countries foremost psychiatrists Pliney Earle was the first Superintendent of the Northampton Lunatic Asylum later the Northampton State Hospital. He was appointed in 1864 and resigned in 1885. Dr Earle was one of the founders of the American Medical Association and several other Psychiatric Societies and was President of two of them. He had an international reputation and was a corresponding member of numerous medical societies in Europe, Asia Minor and in Latin America. He was a pioneer in the institutional treatment of the insane, and in Northampton he put into practice his theories of using work as a form of therapy by using agriculture not only as occupational therapy but also to provide food for the hospital. He had more than forty-six published medical treatises, and is remembered as one of the first physicians to treat mental illness as a corporal disease. A kind, frugal and patient man he was also a prominent member of the community and on his death made the first major contribution to the book fund for the new library (Forbes Library) after the gift of Judge Forbes.

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