John Conolly (1794–1866) was a physician and psychiatrist who treated the mentally ill at the Hanwell County Asylum where he introduced the principle of non-restraint. This principle had already been put into practice in two small English asylums—William Tuke's York Retreat and the Lincoln Asylum—but it was due to Conolly's courage in sweeping away all mechanical restraint in the large metropolitan-area asylum that non-restraint became accepted practice throughout Britain. This biography was the last major work of Sir James Clark (1788–1870), a supporter of Conolly's enlightened methods. Clark himself had enjoyed a distinguished medical career, being physician to Queen Victoria.
