330 INSANITY. 



varnished truth), that up to the year 1770 the poor mentally 

 afflicted inmates of Bedlam were exhibited for money to any 

 morbidly curious individual who might choose to pay, then 

 certain thinking people may indulge the hope that the social 

 relations of public executioners may be improved in the course 

 of time. Between the social status of the insane as it was, 

 and their social status as it is, the difference is in no respect 

 less marked than between the present case of a public hang- 

 man as it is, and as I conceive it should be. 



Yes, up to the year 1770 the inmates of Bedlam, and 

 other British lunatic asylums, were exhibited for money. The 

 entrance-fee, first twopence, ultimately fell to a penny. See, 

 then, the depths of utter degradation to which the insane had 

 come to be subjected in this our Christian England. 



Nor did we English stand alone in this matter. Foreign 

 asylums were conducted on principles of no more humanity 

 than ours. In some cases the discipline was even more cruel. 

 In France, for example, it was customary for asylum watchers 

 or attendants to go armed with heavy whips, and accompa- 

 nied by savage dogs not for show and pretence, be assured ; 

 both were used too frequently. The entrance-fee being paid, 

 and the visitor passed within, he or she for women would 

 go to see the sight had no cause to complain that little was 

 shown for the money. 



Horrors, active and passive, there were enough to glut 

 the most morbid mental being. Gaunt, spectre-like objects 

 of flesh and blood, from whose sunken eyes the speculation 

 of judgment well poised had fled, might be seen crouching 

 and cowering on the floor of noisome cells. 



Others, in whom the fire of fury burned, not only because 

 of madness natural, but partly for reason of maddening ill- 

 treatment received, lingered for long years together ; chained 

 and manacled so that they could assume 110 comfortable 

 position. 



Then there 'were special tortures, dignified by medical 



