Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/30

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
Norman
20
Norman

Two prominent Manchester institutions owed much to Nodal's energies; the Manchester Literary Club, of which he was president (1873–9) and whose annual volumes of 'Papers' he started and edited for those years, and the Manchester Arts Club, which he was mainly instrumental in founding in 1878. For the glossary committee of the Literary Club he wrote in 1873 a paper on the 'Dialect and Archaisms of Lancashire,' and, in conjunction with George Milner, compiled a 'Glossary of the Lancashire Dialect' (2 parts, 1875-82). When the headquarters of the English Dialect Society were removed in 1874 from Cambridge to Manchester, Nodal became honorary secretary and director. He continued in office to the dissolution of the society in 1896. With Prof. W. W. Skeat (1835–1912) he compiled a 'Bibliographical List of Works illustrative of the various English Dialects,' 1877. His other works include: 1. 'Special Collections of Books in Lancashire and Cheshire,' prepared for the Library Association, 1880. 2. 'Art in Lancashire and Cheshire: a List of Deceased Artists,' 1884. 3. 'A Pictorial Record of the Royal Jubilee Exhibition, Manchester,' 1887. 4. 'Bibliography of Ackworth School,' 1889.

He died at the Grange, Heaton Moor, near Manchester, on 13 Nov. 1909, and was interred at the Friends' burial-ground, Ashton-on-Mersey. He married (1) Helen, daughter of Lawrence Wilkinson, by whom he had two sons and three daughters; (2) Edith, daughter of Edmund and Anne Robinson of Warrington.

[Momus, 10 April 1879; Journalist, 12 July 1889; Manchester City News, 19 Dec. 1896, 20 Nov. 1909, and 9 July 1910; Papers of Manchester Literary Club, 1910; Nodal's Bibliography of Ackworth School; personal knowledge.]

C. W. S.


NORMAN, CONOLLY (1853–1908), alienist, born at All Saints' Glebe, Newtown Cunningham, on 12 March 1853, was fifth of six sons of Hugh Norman, rector of All Saints', Newtown Cunningham, and afterwards of Barnhill, both in co. Donegal, by his wife Anne, daughter of Captain William Ball of Buncrana, co. Donegal. Between 1672 and 1733 several members of the Norman family served as mayors of Derry, and two represented the city in parliament. Educated at home owing to delicate health, Norman began at seventeen the study of medicine in Dublin, working at Trinity College, the Carmichael Medical School, and the House of Industry Hospitals. In 1874 he received the licences of the King's and Queen's College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, becoming a fellow of the latter college in 1878, and of the former in 1890.

Norman's professional life was spent in the care of the insane. In 1874, on receiving his qualifications, he was appointed assistant medical officer in the Monaghan Asylum, and he remained there till 1881. After study at the Royal Bethlem Hospital, London, under (Sir) George Savage (1881–2) he was successively medical superintendent of Castlebar Asylum, co. Mayo (1882–5), and of Monaghan asylum (1885–6). From 1886 till his death he was medical superintendent of the most important asylum in Ireland, the Richmond Asylum, Dublin, where he proved his capacity for management and reform. When he took charge of the Richmond Asylum it was insanitary and overcrowded, and more like a prison than a hospital. He introduced a humane regime, made the wards bright and comfortable, and found regular occupation for some 75 per cent, of the patients. By his advice a large branch asylum was built a few miles away in the country. In 1894, and again in 1896, 1897, and 1898, the asylum was visited by beri-beri, the outbreak in 1894 being specially severe. He wrote a very complete article on the clinical features of the disease in 1899 (Trans. Royal Acad. of Medicine in Ireland, vol. xvii.). In later years he was interested in the problem of the care of the insane outside asylums. He studied the methods adopted in Gheel in Flanders and elsewhere, and advocated in many papers the inauguration in the United Kingdom of a system of boarding out.

Norman was president of the Medico-Psychological Association of Great Britain and Ireland in 1894, when the annual meeting was held in Dublin. In 1907 he was president of a section of the Medico-Psychological Congress at Amsterdam. At the time of his death he was vice-president of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. In 1907 the honorary degree of M.D. was conferred on him by the University of Dublin. He was long an editor of the 'Journal of Medical Science,' contributed many papers on insanity to medical periodicals, and was an occasional contributor to this Dictionary.

Norman had many interests outside his speciality. He read widely, and collected books, engravings, and pewter. He was an indefatigable letter-writer, and a