It is curious to let the mind travel back, and consider what was happening about that time.  Just two years before the news had flashed on the philosophical and scientific world that Oersted, a Danish philosopher, had caused a deflection of the magnetic needle by the passage near it of an electric current.  The relation between the two forces was then and there confirmed by separate observations all over the civilized world.  This discovery probably created more interest at that time than Professor Einstein’s recent announcement which, if accepted, may be so disturbing to the principia of Newton and to our ideas of time and space.  There can be no doubt that the practical significance of Oersted’s experiment was much more widely appreciated than the theory of Einstein, for an understanding of the latter is confined, we are told, to not many more men than was necessary to save Sodom and Gomorrah.  Its immense practical significance, however, could have been foreseen by no man, no matter with what vision endowed.  Just two years prior to the founding of this institution the first steamboat had crossed the Atlantic and in the same year that great conqueror, who had so disturbed the peace of the world which was even then as now slowly recovering from the ravages of war, breathed his last in Saint Helena, yielding to death as utterly as the poorest hind.

In 1815, Bedlam Hospital in South London was converted into an asylum for the insane who were at the time called “lunatics.”  The name Bedlam is a corruption of the Hebrew “Bethlehem”—­meaning the House of Bread—­and while the name popularly came to signify a noisy place it was the beginning of really scientific treatment for the tragically afflicted insane.  While the treatment of the insane in Europe was being steadily raised to a higher plane of efficiency, America has also reason to be proud of her record in this respect.  During all the years that have followed, Bloomingdale has been an important factor in the medical world of New York.

There are two phases of its existence which might be emphasized—­first, it was founded by physicians; even then and, of course, long before doctors had proven that they were in the forefront in the promotion of humanitarian activities.  Medicine has always carried on its banners an inscription to the Brotherhood of Man.  It is worthy of note that when Pinel and Tuke had begun to regard mental aberration as a disease and to provide scientific hospital treatment therefor, American physicians, prepared by study and experimentation, were ready to accept and apply the new teachings.