Travels Through Time #17 – Radicalism, Madness and Laughing Gas in 1799
What links Colonel Despard, the Royal Bethlem Hospital and the inventor Humphry Davy?
![The Hospital of Bethlem [Bedlam] at Moorfields, London, c. 1771. Wellcome Collection](/sites/default/files/articles/Jay.jpg "The Hospital of Bethlem [Bedlam] at Moorfields, London, c. 1771. Wellcome Collection")
In 1799, Britain was at war. There was instability at home and widespread hardship. The cost and economic disruption pressed hard, leading to inflation, the collapse of the gold standard in 1797, the introduction of income tax and the stagnation of average real wages. The years 1795-96 and 1799-1801, especially, were years of dearth.
There was concern about radicalism and economic unrest: the association of radicalism with the French also helped to damn it for most (but not all) people, not least because of the anarchy, terror and irreligion associated with the Revolutionary governments.
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