Technology and Bedlam

When we went to Bedlam last week and were looking at the case study books, one of the things that I was struck by was the number of charts and graphs that were included. The case books that we were flipping through were from about the late 1890s and patients that were recorded had a wide ranging number of charts included. While the majority had none, many had one or two, and a handful even had several. I was not able to look thoroughly enough to see if those with more charts had stayed at Bedlam longer, although that could be one explanation. But looking at the charts and thinking about modern medical practices, two things struck me as strange. First, the use of charts was somewhat sporadic and not standardized across patients. Second, although they so strongly tapped into the Victorian love of statistics, the charts were just beginning to be introduced into medical practice.
It is easily forgotten that these charts were as much innovations as other new medical tools like stethoscopes or specialized surgical tools were. The concept of taking someone's pulse, for example, was not new; the concept of counting the pulse, recording it, and quantitatively comparing how it changed over time or with new treatments was. Even while other changes were resisted, these methods crept into the record books at treatment-conservative Bedlam. Thus while the treatments may have stayed the same during the time recorded in the books we looked through, things at Bedlam were slowly integrating new technologies that allowed for the better care of patients.