title: [The French mental health law of 1938].
abstract: Prehistory, attendant circumstances, and consequences are scrutinised on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the first wide-ranging law on the treatment of the feeble-minded in France, forerunner of all subsequent laws on the matter.
authors.affiliation: Karl-Sudhoff-Institut für Geschichte der Medizin, Karl-Marx-Universität Leipzig.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kästner
mesh_terms: D003134:Commitment of Persons with Psychiatric Disorders / Q000266:history*; D005602:France; D049671:History, 18th Century; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000266:history*
vernacular_title: Das französische Irrengesetz von 1838.