1807-1881

American physician and pioneer of psychiatry, among the leading authorities of his day on the relation between mental illness and the law. Ray was co-founder (1844) of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane, later the American Psychiatric Association; superintendent (1845-1866) of Butler Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island; and author of A Treatise on the Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity (1838), Mental Hygiene (1863), and Contributions to Mental Pathology (1873).