At the time the Reverend Martin Madan penned this Treatise On Female Ruin, or Thelyphthora, as he called it, he was the most famous clergyman in all of Christendom. He'd entered the gospel ministry as a philanthropist, some thirty-four years before this publication, with the founding of the Lock Hospital, in London. It was the first hospital of its kind, dedicated exclusively to the treatment of women with venereal disease. To this day, such hospitals are called "lock hospitals" in honor of that first institution. The staff of physicians treated the patients' physical ailments while the Reverend Madan attended to their spiritual needs. It was not long before the need for a chapel became apparent and an eight hundred seat chapel was erected with funds raised by Reverend Madan. Madan's friend, George Frideric Handel, the famous composer of The Messiah, contributed his talents at one such fund raiser. Reverend Martin Madan would become famous for his own concerts at the Lock performed every Sunday evening. Chapel Street in London is named after the Chapel at the Lock. Madan became the primary representative of Evangelicalism from its infancy. By the time the chapel had been erected, Madan was already a famous defender of the Evangelical cause for his Exhortatory Address to the Brethren in the Faith of Christ. Madan continued serving the Evangelical cause with his Letters to Joseph Priestley and provided a much needed criticism of the English system of justice with his Thoughts on Executive Justice. He served as Chaplain at the Lock till the day of his death; Forty one years of service to the outcast of London.
