200 Years Ago Today 2

The Inspector of Naval Hospitals, Dr John Weir, told the Committee on Madhouses that when he visited and asked to see a journal of the treatment given to the seventeen “Naval Maniacs as had been admitted to the Hospital for the cure of insanity”, he was told by the apothecary, Mr Haslam, that such a journal wasn’t deemed necessary.

He said that Mr Haslam told him that: “A long established system of treatment was pursued, which consisted simply in bleeding and purging freely in the spring months. This, he said, had been found beneficial, and from long custom, was now adopted as a standing regulation in the institution.”