The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-11 00:00:00

BETHLEHEM HOSPITAL.

The Committee of Bethlehem Hospital meets, it is
said, to-day. Bentham and Sydney Smith, men who
started from two different points of observation, and
who were guided in their investigations by principles
totally different, came nevertheless to the same con-
clusion as to the value of committees in general. They
both thought that as committees met to transact busi-
ness, the chance was that the transaction of the busi-
ness before the committee would fall solely into the
hands of the most practical man. Experience too often
comes in to bear testimony to the correctness of the
decision of both philosophers. Committees generally
serve as scapegoats for the sins of one or two practical
men. In the case of Bethlehem the small committee
seems to have resolved itself into one man—the Trea-
surer, and his sins have been heavy enough.
But there are times when the matters brought be-
fore a committee are of such a nature that the slum-
bering responsibility of each member cannot fail to
be roused. His own personal feelings are excited, and
he refuses to put his conscience in the keeping of
another, and vindicates his own right to come to a.
conclusion at dto act upon it. The late exposures of
the treatment experienced by lunatics in Bethlehem
Hospital are of a nature to warrant each person in a
committee appointed to watch over the management
of this institution to exercise his own individual judg-
ment. If the members do not feel this responsibility
and act upon it now, we can scarcely imagine that
they have paid, as they ought to have done, attention
to the extraordinary evidence brought before Lord
Shaftesbury, and published, from the secret report,
for the benefit of the whole country in the columns
of the Daily News. Nothing has been done to shake
the validity of this evidence, and we have therefore
the strongest right to expect that the committee to-
day will do their duty, and act upon information
which has been brought before them.
The committee will in the first place be struck
with the insufficiency of the medical staff, as testified
by the facts brought forward in the evidence to which
we have alluded. The evidence of the Treasurer, the
supreme officer of the establishment, will be sufficient
to prove this part of the case. "I state to you in can-
dour," said this chief officer of the establishment
where all these cruelties have been perpetrated,
" with regard to the medical staff, that I have never
from the first been satisfied that I had a sufficient
medical staff. I feel that one resident medical officer
is not sufficient for so large an institution. I ought
to have two resident ones, who should take the entire
control of the whole establishment, and it should never
under any circumstances be without one." There
are few persons who have read the evidence taken
before the Commissioners in Lunacy who will not
echo the wishes of the Treasurer (a reluctant witness,
be it observed) on this point.
The insufficiency of general supervision is the next
point that must come under the notice of the com-
mittee. It is utterly impossible—to take one solitary
case—that such scenes as were described in the
Daily kews of Saturday could have taken place under
a system of government which included good super-
intendence. In that report we read that in one de-
partment of the hospital fifteen at least of the female
patients are stripped stark naked before they are put
to sleep on straw. Such a state of things could
never have grown up under a sufficient medical and
general supervision.
It is scarcely possible, after having read the evi-
dence published in our columns, and comparing it
with evidence of a similar nature respecting other
institutions, to avoid coming to the conclusion that
when establishments of this kind are not preserved
from possible mal-administration and corruption by
subjecting them to the direct influence of public
opinion, they must degenerate. We have had suffi-
cient proof of this assertion in the evidence brought
before both Houses on the occasion of a committee
being appointed to examine into the condition of pri-
vate mad-houses. These asylums, while they were
not subject to public supervision and control, were the
abodes not only of misery, but of crime. The
Legislature has now practically thrown them open to
public supervision, and the consequence has been, that
although there have been a few instances of mal-
treatment, the general conduct of these institutions
has been good. The public eye should be kept upon
Bethlehem, and the press should report the proceed-
ings of its managing committee.
Another point which will need the sedulous atten-
tion of the committee is the amount of restraint and
confinement to which the patients are subjected.
Nothing is so well established by the whole history of
lunatic( asylums as the principle that mere restraint
does but little, whereas effective superintendence does
much. Hanwell is a case in point. In that asylum
there is no painful restraint, but there is constant vigi-
lance. In other words, good keepers and not iron bars
are needed. The private asylums for paupers, might,
in this respect, give lessons to Bethlehem Hospital.
There is no point, however, more worthy of the at-
tention of the committee than the revision of the
medical staff of the hospital. Every one who is ac-
quainted with the working of the public medical in-
stitutions in London knows that, in many instances,
the medical names on the list of the officers give any-
thing but a true indication of the working force of
the establishment. It is considered right and proper

that each hospital shall have on its staff the naves of
as many celebrities as possible, and a committee will
very frequently willingly dispense with the active
services of an eminent medical man if he will but
allow his name to figure on their list. It is notorious
that in some instances such persons have allowed their
names to be put down upon the sole condition that
they are never to be called upon to act. This should
not be allowed. One of the first steps towards making
Bethlehem Hospital take its proper share in the
medical treatment of lunatic patients, is the require-
ment of actual duties from each member of the staff.
Let there be more doctors for work and less for
show. It may be impossible to get the great medical
authorities in cases of lunacy to give up a larger
portion of their private practice in order to attend to
a public asylum, but this difficulty may be met by
increasing the number of working medical men, and
leaving to the others the duty of actual superintend-
ence.

So much for the details which it will be the duty

of the committee to investigate to-day. In the mean
time it must be remembered that a no less important
duty devolves upon the City of London. The city
is the guardian of Bethlehem and its patients, and it
is incumbent surely upon all those who have so im-
portant a trust, to take care that none but good and
fitting men should be chosen to fill important offices.
An appeal to Parliament must be made if the city
authorities are unequal to their duties.
We speak now only of suggestions that may be
acted upon today. It rests with the committee to
atone for past misdeeds or to prepare for future and
heavy condemnation. From the number of letters
which have reached us upon the subject we feel how
completely the general public sympathise with us in
the desire to obtain better treatment for the unhappy

patients confined in Bethlehem. One univeisil
feeling of surprise and disgust has been manifested
by those who now learn with startled horror how the
20,0001. a year is spent by the governors who rule
over the lunatics in St. George's-fields. It is difficult
at first to believe such atrocities possible in a civilised
country in the middle of the nineteenth century—to
believe that the most pitiable of all human afflictions
should subject is victims to still heavier pangs—that
those who have lost their reason and their liberty
should be further punished to gratify the diabolical
malice of the servants especially ipaid to watch over
their weakness, and to minister to their wants.
The cruelties in Bethlehem have been so abominable,
that it takes time to appreciate the full enormity
.ofll
these offences against afflicted humanity. A sti
stronger feeling must inevitably succeed to
.that
already existing on the subject, unless the c
ermom.mitiont.tee
take to-day such steps es will show a detma
to prevent the recurrence of these madhouse sins and
scandals in future.—Daily .News.