Extensions of Nursing Field 213 fashion, they were supposed to cause insanity. As the modern age drew near, the insane were kept in prisons with ordinary criminals, but were gradually separated from the latter. Our word "Bedlam" arose from the name Beth- lehem Royal Hospital in England, which was, in the Middle Ages, a priory, where, from about the year 1400 on, the insane were received. With the expulsion of the monks, the civil powers in- herited the hospital and its inmates. As late as 1 81 5, these unfortunates were treated with actual cruelty, and the populace was wont to go to watch and laugh at them as if they had been animals in cages. Even by 1840 chains and irons were in use in many places in England, Germany and America, and there was no widespread general progress until 1850. The earliest modern reformers were French and English. In 1725 St. Andre, a French physician, wrote a book in which he contended that the theory of demoniacal possession was itself a lunacy. In 1768 this was confirmed by resolution in the French Parliament. In England John Locke made a similar declaration. In 1796 two important events occurred. In England William Tuke, a Friend, founded a quiet country retreat for the insane, where he proved the possibility of caring for them
