©Wellcome Library, London
 
 

Visitors to the newly rebuilt Bethlem Hospital passed through a portico, at either side of which stood statues by the sculpture, Caius Gabriel Cibber (1630-1700), depicting ‘Melancholy' and ‘Raving Madness'. These became icons for the anatomy of madness. The Swiss traveller, César de Saussure, described the scene inside the hospital: ‘You find yourself in a long and wide gallery, on either side of which are a large number of little cells where lunatics of every description are shut up, and you can get a sight of these poor creatures, little windows being let into the doors. Many inoffensive madmen walk in the big gallery. On the second floor is a corridor and cells ... and this is the part reserved for dangerous maniacs, most of them being chained and terrible to behold'. In 1814-1815, the hospital moved to St George's Fields, Southwark, and the Moorfields building was demolished.

Engraving with watercolour by Thomas Bowles II (fl. 1712-1767) after John Maurer (fl. 1713-1761), London.

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