![]() ![]() As Edwin Fuller Torrey and Judy Miller wrote in The Invisible Plague: The Rise of Mental Illness from 1750 to the Present, trains were believed to “ injure the brain.” In particular, the jarring motion of the train was alleged to unhinge the mind and either drive sane people mad or trigger violent outbursts from a latent “lunatic.” Mixed with the noise of the train car, it could, it was believed, shatter nerves. ![]() ![]() But according to the more fearful Victorians, these technological achievements came at the considerable cost of mental health. “A Lady’s Desperate Plight In A Train: Fearful Struggle With a Supposed Madman”, from the Illustrated Police News Saturday 19 December 1903.Īs the railway grew more popular in the 1850s and 1860s, trains allowed travelers to move about with unprecedented speed and efficiency, cutting the length of travel time drastically. There seemed to be something about the railways that made people-particularly men-suffer mental anguish and unrest. The railway passenger prancing around with a pistol was by no means the strangest case of “railway madness” reported during the Victorian era in Britain. ![]()
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