Mary Todd Lincoln's Cell

[Eva Elisabeth]

As for the drugs at Bellevue, from J. Baker's bio:
"...under his [Dr. Patterson] orders the staff dispensed large doses of opium, morphine, cannabis indica, belladonna, ergot, conium, and Bellevue's notorious whiskey-laced eggnog. In the early 1870s he had begun using chloral hydrate."
A few months before Mary arrived, Dr. Patterson had delivered a lethal amount of chloral hydrate to one of his patients. And he characterized insanity as "a chronic disease of the brain which produces derangement of the intellectual faculties and prolonged changes of feelings, affections and habits."