A question that has been prominently before the public for the past few years, and which has not always been discussed with the cool reason so weighty a subject demands, is the control, custody, and treatment of the insane community known as private patients; and for the purpose of present argument I class those patients as private patients whose cost is defrayed without aid from the State—either in the matter of board, lodging, or attendance; for though private patients who reside in hospitals for the insane receive this aid, the building in which they reside is provided from special funds (and most hospitals have a small income from invested funds or annual subscriptions), it amounts to very little, and is absorbed in the free cost, or mitigation in the cost of maintenance, of a few patients. In speaking of lunatic hospitals, I leave out of the question the great Hospital of Bethlem, where the maintenance of the patients is entirely defrayed from the funds of the charity.
Presidential Address, delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Medico-Psychological Association, Friday, July 30th, 1880