penny was charged for
admission, the resulting revenue is said to have amounted to four
hundred pounds sterling a year, showing that nearly one hundred
thousand persons had visited the institution.

From generations that were pleased to derive morbid amusement out of
the misfortunes of others, humanitarian {374} care of the insane could
not be reasonably expected; but in view of this custom it is difficult
to understand how there could have been at this period any great abuse
of patients, in the matter of severe punishments or inhuman restraint.

Some of the customs of the old-time hospitals were interesting. It was
believed that the one chance for an insane patient to recover lay in
trusting him somewhat, allowing him even to go unattended outside the
walls at times. Patients in Bedlam were permitted to go out alone
after they improved in health, and if they were poor they were allowed
to obtain their living by means of begging. In order that they might
more easily work upon public sympathy, they were permitted to wear tin
plates fastened to their arms. The wearers of these were called
"Bedlams," or "Bedlamites" or "Bedlam beggars," and tradition says
that they received much more consideration than ordinary beggars.

It may appear that this was dangerous liberty, but the ordinary person
is apt to consider as dangerous the open door treatment of the insane
which most alienists now hold to be the most commendable feature of
present day treatment. It seems reasonable that to permit patients to
go into the open air and sunshine was better than confining them in
the hospital, and doubtless the insignia which they wore especially
commended them to the care and alms and sympathy of the people.

Much has been said with regard to the alleged neglect and abuse of the
insane during the period of exorcism, because of the misunderstanding
of the cause of the disease. There are persons who consider
neurasthenia and major-hysteria as more or less modern forms of
nervous diseases, but it is more than probable that they {375} existed
with considerable frequency in the olden time. Many of these cases
would be cured by strong suggestions, that is, by the treatment
usually given to supposed possessed persons, and as we know that the
best possible treatment for certain forms of major-hysteria is to
frighten the patient (the earthquake at San Francisco cured a dozen
persons who had not been regarded as able to walk, some of them for
yea