Henry Cotton (doctor)

Henry Andrews Cotton (May 19, 1869 or May 18, 1876 – May 8, 1933) was an American psychiatrist and the medical director of the New Jersey State Hospital at Trenton (now Trenton Psychiatric Hospital), in Trenton, New Jersey. During his tenure from 1907 to 1930, Cotton and his staff employed experimental surgery and Bacteriology techniques on patients, which included the routine removal of some or all of patients' teeth as well as tonsils, spleens, colons, ovaries, and other organs. These pseudoscientific practices persisted even after statistical reviews disproved Cotton's claims of high cure rates and revealed high mortality rates as a result of these procedures.

Cotton became the medical director of the New Jersey State Hospital at Trenton at the age of 30. As director, Cotton implemented changes to how the hospital operated, such as abolishing mechanical restraints, and requiring daily staff meetings to discuss outpatient care. Cotton was motivated by the new medical research of the 20th century, and held the belief that various mental illnesses were caused by untreated infections in the body. This theory, called biological psychiatry, was introduced to him by Dr. Adolf Meyer, and was in contrast to the eugenic theories of the era that emphasized heredity. At the time, Cotton was a leading practitioner of biological psychiatry in the United States.