Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Hospitals, Patronage, Mental Illness

    Discusses a circular letter sent by W J Nixon to 'Bethlem' (i.e. Bethlehem Royal Hospital) and St Thomas's Hospital, which explains that Henry W Peek has offered to give a large freehold site for the new Bethlem Hospital on the condition that St Thomas's is rebuilt on the site of the old Bethlem Hospital and that twenty thousand guineas is given to the London Hospital. Upholding the need to place lunatics in a better environment and the need to support the London Hospital, Punch concludes that the authorities of Bethlem and St Thomas's should be sent to Bedlam (i.e. to the Bethlehem Royal Hospital itself) if they decline this offer, and expects the British public to raise the sum for the London Hospital.