[Note: this is just something I've been thinking about lately. Not too sure if it's going to have much of a plot or go anywhere. The text below should be imagined to be written by a doctor at a 19th century medical facility, confidentially to a colleague]

Dr. _______, you wished to know something about the methods employed here at _______. You say that you have heard many rumors of the place from female friends and relations, none of whom have been actual patients here, but all of whom have heard of us second or third hand. As your old friend, I will hide nothing from you.

Firstly, it is true that we only treat ladies here. Specifically, we specialize in young single or married women who experience symptoms of boredom, hysteria, fainting spells, the vapors, swooning, difficulty breathing, and back and kneck pains.

We have found that many of the aforementioned ailments are brought on by the tight and confining clothing that is worn by all women in polite society these days. Therefore, a major component of our treatment is the uniform wearing of simple hospital gowns as the only type of dress allowed. This is a major adjustment for ladies who are used to being covered from head to toe and tightly bound into place at all times. Our gowns do not come down quite to the knee, and do not provide any artificial support to the patient's body. She remains in a very natural state at all times.

We allow our patients freedom to walk about the hospital grounds as they wish. But they are not allowed to put on any extra clothing when doing so, we believe it is importing for them to become comfortable going about in only their gowns. (Now you see why we have taken great pains to surround our facility with properly high fences and walls, because of the scandal that would result were our patients to be seen by the general public in their state of semi-undress.)

Our gowns are of the kind that open in the back. There are no buttons or hooks. There are only laces that tie at the top to keep the entire gown from falling off. There are no laces to close the gown over the lower back, the upper legs, or the buttocks.

This is very important. Because while we do not go so far as to make the patients totally nude at all times, it is nevertheless part of the treatment to break down their modesty of exposing their bodies.

We employ both male and female attendants to keep watch over our patients. If any one of them becomes stubborn or rude in the presence of female employees, they lead her off into a separate room, two of them. One of them holds her hands tightly and forces her to lean over a table, while the other vigorously paddles her backside. In fact the paddles used for this are carried about at all times by the female staff. They are instructed to randomly and without warning deliver smacks of varying force to patients as they go about their business.

(The patients themselves are also encouraged to do this to each other. Those who have been with us for long enough to become comfortable with our system particularly enjoy doing this to newer more nervous patients.)

Misbehavior in the presence of male staff is also not tolerated. These young men, all of them off-duty soldiers with clean records, have been instructed to escort unruly patients into a different room. Here the patient's hands are tied to the bedposts, and the patient receives anal sexual intercourse for as long as the man takes to get his pleasure. Yes, our men have been trained very specifically to only penetrate the anus. We want no bastard children resulting from our practices here.

I will tell you, it is also true that once the patients have undergone either of these punishments, they are given a code word. This code word, whispered into the ear of a staff member of either sex, will earn the patient either of the punishments described above without needing to actually commit any offense. We find that a number of them require such ministrations not so much as a punishment but as part of their medical course, as it were.

Meals, daily exercise, and general socialization all take place while wearing the gown. Bed rest, however, we see no need for the gown to be worn. We take up the current day's gown from each patient at bed-time, and provide her with a fresh clean one when she awakes in the morning. In the mean-time, she sleeps in the nude.

Patients who require extra bed-rest during the day also do so in the nude, although of course they are covered by the bedsheets. We keep the doors open so that healthier patients can wander in to visit their sick friends. The visitors are allowed, and actually we suggest it if they do not think of it on their own, to slip under the sheets and keep their friends company physically.

In certain cases, patients are restrained in their beds by binding at the hands and feet. While we initially introduced the bed-binding procedure as either a punishment or the prescribed treatment for especially severe symptoms, we have also found it necessary to make it available upon request of the patient.