In
A Treatise on Madness, Battie drew a distinction between "original madness" and "consequential madness", suggesting that the former is usually innate and incurable whereas the latter can be treated through complete isolation, a strict regimen managed by a physician and selective use of
emetic drugs or other forms of purging. Shortly after Battie's treatise was written, Rival physician John Monro of
Bethlem Hospital published a response, critiquing it for being overly complex, vague and lacking in evidence. On the topic of "original madness" for example, he wrote:"Of what use it may hereafter prove to have thus divided madness into
original and
consequential is not my business to enquire at present. The first of these is entirely the doctor's invention, it never having been mentioned by any writer, or observed by any physician. What is the cause of
original madness? It is unknown. What are the symptoms? There are none. The method of cure? It admits of no cure, unless nature has a mind to recompense a little its ill-conditioned fate by a perfect recovery without our assistance and beyond our expectation."Both the
St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics and
Bethlem Royal Hospital practised involuntary confinement and use of restraints, but only the latter was open to public visitors. These public hospitals competed with a growing number of private institutions, including Battie's own properties. ==References==