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This page concludes the article entitled Bethlem, or Bedlam Hospital, which started on Page 295.
It is followed by the article entitled Bethnal Green, on this page.
300B E T
or, in his absence, by the Treasurer.
Those who put in the patient are oblig-
ed to give a bond, signed by two per-
sons, to take him away when discharg-
ed, or if he dies, to be at the expence
of burying him.  Their friends, who put
them in, are obliged to provide them
with cloaths; but there is a wardrobe
from whence they are supplied, when
neglected by those friends: for though,
when raving and furious, they suffer but
little from the weather; yet in their in-
tervals, they frequently contract other
distempers, care of which is also taken,
as well as of their lunacy, whether
those distempers be external or internal;
and though formerly every patient paid
5s a week, they now not only pay
nothing, but after their recovery and
leaving the hospital, are furnished with
medicines to prevent a relapse.  When
a patient is cured, he is called before a
Committee of the Governors and Physi-
cians, who examine him, and being
found fit to be discharged, the Physician
gives a certificate to that purpose, and
then the steward of the house takes care
to have him delivered to his friends.

The
B E T301
The hospitals of Bethlem and Bride-
well being made one corporation, they
have the same President, Treasurer,
Governors, Clerk, Physician, Surgeon,
and Apothecary; yet each hospital has
its proper steward and inferior offices,
and a particular committee is chosen out
of the Governors for each.  Out of that
appointed for Bethlem, there are six
who meet every Saturday, to examine
the steward's account of expences for
the preceding week, and to sign it
after it is approved; they also view the
provisions, examine the patients that
are to be received or discharged, and
have the direction of other affairs be-
longing to this hospital.
Bethnal Green, a village near Mile
End, and lately one of the hamlets of
Stepney, from which parish it was sepa-
rated by an act of parliament in the 13th
year of his present Majesty's reign.  The
old Roman way from London led thro'
this hamlet, and joining the military
way from the west, passed with it to Lea
Ferry at Old Ford.  Within this ham-
let, Bonner, Bishop of London, had a
palace, and the Trinity House have an
hospital for twenty-eight decayed sea-
men,