science

Ten Days in a Mad-House

Ten Days in a Mad-House is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ten Days in a Mad-House rather than just read about it. In short: Ten Days in a Mad-House is a book by American journalist Nellie Bly. It was initially published as a series of articles for the New York World.

Key takeaways

Ten Days in a Mad-House belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Ten Days in a Mad-House to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Ten Days in a Mad-House from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ten Days in a Mad-House is a book by American journalist Nellie Bly. It was initially published as a series of articles for the New York World. Bly later compiled the articles into a book, being published by Norman Munro in New York City in 1887. The book was based on articles written while Bly was on an undercover assignment for the New York World, feigning insanity at a women's boarding house, so as to be involuntarily committed to an insane asylum. She then investigated the reports of brutality and neglect at the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island (now called Roosevelt Island). The book received widespread acclaim. The combination of her reportage and the release of her content brought her fame and led to a grand jury investigation and financial increase in the Department of Public Charities and Corrections.

Research

Bly left the Pittsburgh Dispatch in 1887 for New York City. Penniless after four months, she talked her way into the offices of Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper the New York World, and took an undercover assignment for which she agreed to feign insanity to investigate reports of brutality and neglect at the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island.

After a night spent practicing expressions in front of a mirror, she checked into a boardinghouse. She refused to go to bed, telling the boarders that she was afraid of them and that they looked "crazy." They soon decided that she was "crazy," and the next morning summoned the police. Taken to a courtroom, she claimed to have amnesia. The judge concluded she had been drugged.

Several doctors then examined her; all declared her insane. "Positively demented," said one, "I consider it a hopeless case. She needs to be put where someone will take care of her." The head of the insane pavilion at Bellevue Hospital pronounced her "undoubtedly insane". The case of the "pretty crazy girl" attracted media attention: "Who Is This Insane Girl?" asked the New York Sun. The New York Times wrote of the "mysterious waif" with the "wild, haunted look in her eyes" and her desperate cry: "I can't remember I can't remember." Once admitted to the asylum, Bly abandoned any pretense at mental illness and began to behave as she would normally. The hospital staff seemed unaware that she was no longer "insane" and instead began to report her ordinary actions as symptoms of her illness. Even her pleas to be released were interpreted as further signs of mental illness. Speaking with her fellow patients, Bly was convinced that some were as "sane" as she was. Bly experienced the deplorable conditions firsthand. The nurses behaved obnoxiously and abusively, telling the patients to shut up, and beating them if they did not. The food consisted of gruel broth, spoiled beef, bread that was little more than dried dough, and dirty undrinkable water. The dangerous patients were tied together with ropes. The patients were made to sit for much of each day on hard benches with scant protection from the cold. Waste was all around the eating places. Rats crawled all around the hospital. On the effect of her experiences, she wrote:

What, excepting torture, would produce insanity quicker than this treatment? Here is a class of women sent to be cured. I would like the expert physicians who are condemning me for my action, which has proven their ability, to take a perfectly sane and healthy woman, shut her up and make her sit from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. on straight-back benches, do not allow her to talk or move during these hours, give her no reading and let her know nothing of the world or its doings, give her bad food and harsh treatment, and see how long it will take to make her insane. Two months would make her a mental and physical wreck.

A particularly memorable experience for Bly were the baths that the patients received. The bathwater was frigid and buckets of it were poured over their heads, after which the patients were roughly washed and scrubbed by attendants. The bath water was rarely changed, with many patients bathing in the same filthy water. Even when the water was eventually changed, the staff did not scrub or clean out the bath, instead throwing the next patient into a stained, dirty tub. The patients also shared bath towels, with healthy patients forced to dry themselves with a towel previously used by patients with skin inflammations, boils, or open sores. Bly recalled the bathing ritual with trepidation, stating:

My teeth chattered and my limbs were goose-fleshed and blue with cold. Suddenly I got, one after the other, three buckets of water over my head—ice-cold water, too—into my eyes, my ears, my nose and my mouth.

After ten days, The World secured Bly's release from the asylum. Her report, published in The World and later released as a book, caused a sensation and brought her lasting fame. Of her release, Bly wrote:

I left the insane ward with pleasure and regret–pleasure that I was once more able to enjoy the free breath of heaven; regret that I could not have brought with me some of the unfortunate women who lived and suffered with me, and who, I am convinced, are just as sane as I was and am now myself.

Reception The question in hand was how Bly managed to convince professionals of her insanity in the first place. As revealed in her first hand account, Ten Days in a Mad-House, Bly spoke of how the main physician that performed her examination was more focused on the attractive nurse that was assisting the examination than with Bly herself. While physicians and staff worked to explain how she had deceived so many professionals, Bly's report prompted a grand jury to launch its own investigation with Bly assisting. The jury's report resulted in an $850,000 increase in the budget of the Department of Public Charities and Corrections. The grand jury also ensured that future examinations were more thorough such that only the seriously ill were committed to the asylum.

Adaptations

Film adaptation A low-budget independent film version of 10 Days in a Madhouse, starring Caroline Barry as Bly, Christopher Lambert, Kelly Le Brock and Julia Chantrey, was released in 2015 from Pendragon Pictures. On January 19, 2019, Lifetime debuted a movie called Escaping the Madhouse: The Nellie Bly Story which stars Christina Ricci as Nellie Bly, Judith Light as Matron Grady, and Josh Bowman as Dr. Josiah.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ten Days in a Mad-House

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ten Days in a Mad-House claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ten Days in a Mad-House before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ten Days in a Mad-House ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ten Days in a Mad-House

In research: Ten Days in a Mad-House appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Ten Days in a Mad-House in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Ten Days in a Mad-House is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1880s English-language non-fiction books, 1887 non-fiction books, American non-fiction books, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ten Days in a Mad-House outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Ten Days in a Mad-House in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ten Days in a Mad-House means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Ten Days in a Mad-House out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ten Days in a Mad-House in simple terms?

Ten Days in a Mad-House is a book by American journalist Nellie Bly. It was initially published as a series of articles for the New York World.

Why does Ten Days in a Mad-House matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ten Days in a Mad-House?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ten Days in a Mad-House.