In 1751, Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond founded the Pennsylvania Hospital, the first such institution in the colonies. Among the patients admitted to the hospital were the mentally ill. A 2013 article describes their treatment:
“For the people of Philadelphia, it was considered a pastime to come to the hospital and peer into the rooms of the insane to witness their episodes. The patients were douched alternatively with warm and cold water, their scalps shaved and blistered; they were bled to the point of syncope (transient loss of consciousness due to inadequate blood supply to the brain), purged until the alimentary canal failed to yield anything but mucus, and, in the intervals, were kept chained. The keepers were given whips and they were allowed to use them on patients that were not passive. These methods were not meant to be cruel to the patients; they were what were deemed necessary to help them in their recovery.”
