Aged about seventy-eight, transferred hither from Old Bethlem. This
poor old creature has long been deemed incurable. She thinks herself
dreadfully ill-used; and her imagination is constantly agitated by a
persuasion that all persons whom she sees in the course of the day are
placed in her room by night, and anatomized. Their skeletons occupy, as
she fancies, every corner of her apartment throughout the night. She
imagines that all the nurses and patients suffer in the same manner.
She appears herself to suffer extreme anxiety and pain of mind under
the opinion. She pities and sympathizes with the other patients and
nurses, whom she believes to be equally tormented with herself in their
feelings. She is always upon the sick list, and has her food regularly
brought to her room, which she never quits.
Many of the other patients have occasional little comforts sent them by
friends; such as tea and sugar, snuff, tobacco, fruit, cakes, and the
like: but this poor creature seems to have outlived all her connexions,
for no friend or acquaintance ever comes to visit or inquire after
her, or do her the smallest kindness, beyond what is furnished by the
benevolence of this institution, which amply provides for all her wants.