Ruthin Castle: a private hospital for the investigation and treatment of obscure medical diseases (1923-1950).

A LESSER-KNOWN development in medicine in Great Britain was the opening in 1923 of Ruthin Castle, North Wales, the first private hospital for the investigation and treatment of obscure internal diseases. Apart from the inevitable publicity it evoked, and although the clinic acquired a wide reputation, it remained unadvertised except for a regular notice in the Quarterly Journal of Medicine. This announced simply that patients could be received for investigation and treatment on the authority of their doctor and that mental cases would not be accepted. It also commented briefly on the historic setting of the Castle and the beauty of its environment.