The editor of the following sheets having had, for some years, daily
opportunities of witnessing the whole system of management adopted in
Bethlem Hospital, in its various relations of regularity, cleanliness,
humanity, and skill, has been induced to think, that a descriptive
sketch of the institution, and the manners of its inhabitants, would
not be an unacceptable novelty to the Public.
Among the great charitable establishments of the British empire this
holds a pre-eminent rank, and by the excellence of its regulations and
medical treatment, it may be justly considered a model of imitation
for all Europe. For this rare improvement Bethlem Hospital is indebted
to a series of measures, planned and executed with consummate wisdom
and indefatigable perseverance. Experience was the grand basis of
these measures. During a long, minute, and patient investigation,
carried on through successive sessions, by a Parliamentary Committee,
the practice adopted in all other establishments of a similar
nature, whether public or private, throughout the United Kingdom,
was diligently examined; the skill and opinions of all the medical
men most conversant with the subject, were attentively consulted and
compared. The detection and reform of errors and abuses, arising
from ignorance, apathy, caprice, or cruelty, which had been too long
prevalent, constituted the happy result of that laborious, but humane
inquiry; and benevolence was never, perhaps, consecrated by a nobler
triumph, than when it was satisfactorily demonstrated, that force and
terror, instead of alleviating, tended but to aggravate the miseries
and horrors of insanity and delirium. The philanthropic views of the
British Legislature and the British nation were at length realized.
Harsh usage and irritating coercion gave way to mildness, forbearance,
and indulgence, and the wretched inmates of this asylum of mental
derangement were liberated from unnecessary violence, intimidation, and
solitary confinement.
That part of the work which enumerates a number of singular cases, is
new to the public press; and however curious to the general reader,
will not, it is trusted, be unattended with beneficial effects to
the observing and inquisitive mind, which interests itself in the
investigation, distinction, and comparative views of such extraordinary
appearances. If they do not, either individually or collectively,
supply any data for tracing (what has hitherto baffled the powers of
human intellect) the malady to its source, they may at least contribute
to illustrate, by living example, the various modifications of mania.
The correctness of the respective statements is entitled to the most
implicit belief.
The editor’s chief object, in the present publication, is to make the
merits of the institution more generally and accurately known; to
remove any prejudices which may exist in the minds of the uninformed;
and to point out the mode by which the admission of patients may be
promptly obtained. He subjoins a succinct account of the foundation
of the hospital, a table of the rules and orders under which it is
conducted, and some approving testimonies of illustrious and eminent
persons, extracted from a long list of similar attestations, the
voluntary tributes of encomium and admiration on the part of those who
have carefully inspected the establishment.