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A cat, surpassing in beauty, and other therapeutic animals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Patricia H. Allderidge
Patricia H. Allderidge*
Affiliation:
Archivist and Curator, The Bethlem Royal Hospital, Beckenham, Kent BR3 3BX
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In 1860 the Illustrated London News published an engraving of a male ward in Bethlem Hospital, in which two slightly wary looking whippets or small greyhounds are wandering among the patients, while one of them keeps a watchful eye on a smug cat seated beside the chair of a chess player. At intervals along the walls are birdcages and goldfish bowls, all with their appropriate occupants. Another engraving shows a female ward, where similar cages and bowls can be seen hanging between the windows, though the free-range livestock is absent. Each room is also furnished with a huge aviary reaching from floor to ceiling.

Type
Sketches from the history of psychiatry
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 15 , Issue 12 , December 1991 , pp. 759 - 762
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1991

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