JARVIS REVISITED: DISTANCE DECAY IN SERVICE AREAS OF MID-19TH CENTURY ASYLUMS

Edward Jarvis in 1850 first demonstrated that admission rates to mental hospitals decrease with increasing residential distance, a relationship known today as “Jarvis's Law.” His original data are presented, mapped, and examined by regression analysis to better understand spatial and temporal patterns of mid-19th century mental hospital utilization. Distance substantially affected admission rates to a radius of about 60 miles from the institution in Massachusetts; and there was strong distance decay in the other states examined. For all twelve states, there was a positive association between age of the hospitals and admission rates, which also decreased with increasing residential distance.