The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-13 00:00:00

public blessinghas been converted into a public nuisance.
The treatment of the lunatics has been a hundred times

worse, in its systematic cruelty, than that of the worst
criminals. In short, whathas transpired makes us blush
for humanity, makes us lament that, in the middle of
the nineteenth century, lunat:cs should be treated as

badly as they were when the philanthropy of HOWARD
gave the first impetus to the amelioration of the disci-
pline in prisons and lunatic asylums. It is impossible

that this state of things can be allowed to continue.

It should have been prevented and corrected by those

high and mighty personages—literally the master and
the mistress of Bethlehem—namely JOHN EDWARD

JOHNSTON, treasurer of the United Hospitals of

Bridewell and Bethlehem, and HENRIETTA HUNTER,

the matron. There is the case of Miss ITANNen

HYSON. She was admitted as a patient to Bethlehem.
Her medical attendant had been seeing her for three

weeks before. She was thin, but not greatly ems-

ciated ; her body was free from wounds, her bodily
health had been "of average goodness" for two years
before, and her disease was hysterical mania. She
was temporarily lunatic" when he signed the usua
paper for ber admission, and had refused her food for
two or three days before she left home. She en-
tered Bethlehem on April 4, 1851, and Mr. CHARLES

TAYLOR (her medical attendant) saw her again after

she had come out, at the end of a fortnight's con-

finement.

" She struck him as being very much altered in appear-
ance, and very emaciated ; she was very much thinner
than when she went in, and her bones were almost

projecting through her skin.' Her mind was much less
wandering ; but her countenance was very anxious
and dejected, and she looked miserable altogether. She
had no paralysis, but squinted a little, which was
not the case before she went in. She was labouring
under diarrhoea. He did not examine her person, and
could not say whether there were any wounds. He saw
her face, but forgets whether he noticed the marks that
evening or not. Believes it was that evening or the next
morning her mother said, 'Oh Mr. Taylor, my girl
has been terribly ill-treated, and I wish you to look at
her,' and he then particularly examined her body all
over, and had a written account of it somewhere. There
was, to the best of his memory, a piece' or mark on
the upper lip, and one on her cheek also. The wit-
ness then, in answer to a variety of questions, detailed
the various marks and wounds upon the patient's body,
on the ankles, knees, hips, elbows, &c. She died on the
morning of the 22d, four days after leavieg the hospital,
and we' examined the body. By we' he meant Dr.
Wood, the resident apothecary of the hospital, his part-
ner, Mr. Crisp, and himseif. The immediate cause of
her sinking was diarrhces and want of food. She did
not refuse her food after she come out. Witness said to
her,' Hannah, now you must take what I tell you;' she
said she would, and she did. When he said she died
from want of food, ho meant the combined effects of
taking very little nourishment with constant
diarrt cee completely exhausted her. She was labouring
under diarrheea when she cline out, and died of that
and exhaustion. He particularly noticed that she had
no paralysis. When he and his partner were about to
commence the post mortem exeminat ion the morning
after her death, Dr. Wocd came in. The body was very
emaciated, and th-:re were the wounds already described,
but he really could not say what they ores° from. The
places' on her ankles caused him to suspect whether
they had not been bound. He thought she had been
bound. It appeared to him as if these bad been some
fetter or bandage, or ligature, but others might give a
different opinion. The other wounds could not have
been from ligatures—they must have been caused by
some violence or extereal applications. He did not sup-
nose they had been caused by picking or scratching. His
impression was that she lied been ill-treated, but ho
could not say in what way the wounds had been pro-
dueed. It might have been by tumbling about, or by
being struck or bruised in some way. She might have
been rubbed on the fl mr, but he wss decidedly of opinion
that they were not self-ialicted or body sores."
Further, "he was now ready to admit, after all

that he had heard and all that had passed, that bliss
HyseN had been harshly used in the hospital. The
night before she died he went to the hospital to try
to see Dr. WOOD, to obtain more information about
the wounds and marks on her person. Dr. Woo])
was not within, and he saw the matron, who told him
that she believed it was from the cut ends of the
straw, but she had not heard of them before. She
said she had been told of them since, but was not
aware of them previously. She was not aware when
Miss HYSoN left the hospital that she had any wounds
upon her person." Of course not. It will presently
appear how little trouble Mrs. HUNTER (the matron)
gave herself about the patients.

There was the case of Miss WHETTINGLIAM, a
delicate girl, who " had no marks or bruises on her
hody when she went in," on January 9, 1851. After
her admission her mother and some of her friends
went to see her, and it was two months before this
was allowed, and then " she appeared to be in great
distress, and cried bitterly. The mother entreated
her not to do so, and she said, I cannot help it; I
cry all night.' She said Look at my fingers' (one of
them was very much swollen); and when witness in-
quired the cause she said it was one of the nurses, and
she also showed her bruises all down the side ; but wit-
ness had not the opportunity of seeing any more.
When asked why she did not complain to Dr. WooD,
the poor creature said it is of no use complaining to
Dr. WooD. While they were talking Dr. WOOD
happened to come up, and the mother showed the
bruised hand and the marks on her side, and he
showed the swelled hand to one of the nurses, and
asked, ' How is this ?' The nurse said, Oh, that is
an old affair.' The joint of the finger was very much

swollen. The name of the nurse was ELIZABETH.
Her daughter told her that it was not that nurse who
had given her the bruises, but that ELIZABETH used to
beat her with the keys. The bruises were not caused
by her tumbling about, but she at one time had the
misfortune to fall and hurt her hip, and the least push
or blow given her by the nurses would throw her
down. Her daughter slept for three months in the
basement story—she said she never slept on anything
but the bare straw, and no night clothes whatever.
Witness had no opportunity of examining her bed
and bedding, as she was not admitted into the place
where her daughter slept. Every time the poor girl
saw her mother she complained of ill-treatment, and
the mother and friends unfortunately thought it was
one of her delusions. On the second visit she com-
plained that, being awake all night, she overslept her-
self, and the nurse came and dragged her by the hair of
her head to make her get up, and shook her so violently
that it brought on a violent fit of coughing. On an-
other occasion her face appeared very much swollen
with constantly crying. The patient was discharged
cured on the 7th of June. Before she left she said she
would certainly make a complaint when she went
before the committee, but Mrs. HUNTER begged she
would not, as ELIZABETH, the nurse, had a mother to
keep, and the poor girl, being a feeling young per-
son, agreed not to make the complaint. The matron
stood beside the patient when she went before the
committee, so that she could not say anything. She
had since gone to her relatives in Somersetahire, in
the hope that change of air might further benefit her.
Among other things which she told her mother after
she left the hospital was that on one occasion she was
going to take a bath—whether she did not do it pro-
perly or not could not be ascertained, but no less than
three of the nurses forced her in again, and ill-treated
her very much, and she begged never to be put in a
bath again. She also complained of their calling her
most shocking names, and of very bad language being
used towards her."
Miss MORLEY'S case resembled the two others.
She came out of Bethlehem covered with sores and
abrasions, the consequence of neglect, and was three
weeks before she recovered from these injuries. Dr.
NESBITT, in his letter to the Commissioners, said the
sores and abrasions were evidently the consequences
of neglect—that the patient uniformly complained of
the treatment to which she was subjected in Beth-
on, and there was no attempt to interpose
lehem Hospital—that she had nothing but strawya an kind
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her. She described her whole treatment to be harsh
and coarse, and the recollection of it to inspire her with
horror—that the nurses were in the habit of giving
her nicknames derived either from the colour of her
skin or from her habits, and that they treated her
like a brute. He adds that the patient is remarkable
for truthfulness."
Some of the evidence went to show that the pa-
tients in the basement story (a place of punishment,
it would seem,) used to be turned out every morning
into a room floored with atone flags, there washed
with mops and cold water, and the lunatics' clothes
put on them without their bodies being dried after
this mopping !
Mr. JOHN EDWARD JOHNSON, treasurer for the
last three years (and virtually the manager of Beth-
lehem Hospital), gave evidence meant to be exculpa-
tory. He stated that be had assigned to the matron
the "moral treatment of the patients, and by this he
meant " proper exercise and employment ;"—that he
himself went round the hospital about once a fort.