Bedlam

Bedlam is a popular corruption of Bethlehem, the name of an insane asylum in London. In 1247, a sheriff of London, named Simon Fitz-Mary, founded and built in the parish of Bishopsgate, near the northeast corner of Lower Moorfields, a priory dedicated to St. Mary of Bethlehem. It was required that the prior, canons, brothers and sisters maintained upon this foundation should represent in their dress the darkness of night; each was to be clothed in a black robe and to wear a single star on the breast, in memory of the guiding star of the Magi.

About 1523, when great changes were coming over the religious houses in all parts of England, a London merchant tailor, named Stephen Gennings, offered to pay forty pounds toward buying the House of Bethlehem and turning it into a hospital for the insane; but it was not until twenty-two years later that King Henry VIII. made a gift of the House to the city of London, and it became, by order of the city authorities, an insane asylum. Owing to the ignorance prevailing at that day, this asylum was made a place of chains and manacles, and stocks. In the sixteenth century it became so filthy and loathsome that no man could enter it, and thus it fell into decay and ruin. In 1675 a large sum of money was raised to rebuild it. A commodious house was soon erected; among other adornments on the outside, was a stone figure of Madness, carved in general portraiture of one of Cromwell's big doorkeepers, who became insane. In the literature of that period the name of the institution appeared in print as "Bethlem"; the transition to "Bedlam" was then easy. "Bedlam" was then one of the sights of the city, and was used by the guides and keepers as a sort of penny-peep-show for curious strangers. In 1812 another building was erected, which cost ?120,000; but even at this late date, the insane were treated with great cruelty. Some were chained and flogged at certain stages of the moon's age. Treacherous floors were constructed, which slipped from under them and plunged them into what were known as "baths of surprise." Others were fastened in a well into which water was slowly introduced until it reached the point at which it would drown them, the supply was then suddenly cut off. Various other devices of cruelty were employed to frighten the patients out of their lunacy. But all this is changed now,--Bedlam is one of the best conducted institutions in existence. The day of chains and straight-jackets has gone by, and the patients are wooed out of their humors by kindness and pleasurable diversions. The study which the physicians have been able to make of these abnormally conditioned cases has added much to the scientific data concerning the causes, duration, periodicity, modes of treatment and proportion of cures of insanity among each variety of temperament.