Joseph Mason Cox

Joseph Mason Cox (1763–1818) was an early nineteenth century English physician whose entire professional career was devoted to care and treatment of mentally ill people.

Joseph Cox published a book in 1804 which described his experiences in treating mental patients as both a madhouse keeper and a psychiatric consultant.

[1] The title page of the book reads Practical Observations on Insanity in which some suggestions are offered towards an Improved Mode of Treating Diseases of the Mind, and Some Rules Proposed which it is hoped may lead to a more Humane and successful Method of Cure.

Cox conveyed his ideas about protecting people from coercion into asylums and described how a physician must examine an individual before issuing a certificate of lunacy.

Cox introduced a new treatment called swinging to effect change in blood flow in the head and body, a practice that had been advocated by Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), a physician and naturalist.