selves, to their families and the world. The past, how ever, cannot be recalled, and it is only left us now to advise that course which its experience has suggested, and which the present condition of the Institution, and the Insane in our State, demand.

First, as regards the insane and their condition. That it is the duty of the State to make special provision for this afflicted class, all will admit. Whatever may be the social position of the patient, the same necessity exists. The most liberal county, with every advantage which generous appropriations and the most enlightened effort can secure, must fail to give its insane poor the peculiar treatment their disease requires. This is not a merely specu lative conclusion, but the experience of many counties in other States, acquired by costly experiments, which it would be worse than idle for us to repeat. Again, in more favored positions, every comfort, luxury and attention which wealth and the tenderest affection can bestow, is of little avail. The restoration of the patient, in almost every case, absolutely requires removal from home, and a resort to those means of treatment, medical and moral, which a special institution alone affords. Although, with great inconvenience, the affluent might provide suitable private accommodations, a large proportion of our best citizens, all in moderate circumstances, no less than those dependent on their daily exertions for support, without some public provision, must be deprived of much that is desirable, almost as completely as the pauper portion of the community. The simple claims of a common humanity, then, should induce each State to make a liberal provision for all its insane, and it will be found that it is no less its interest to do so, as a mere matter of economy."

Eleven years have elapsed since the passage of an Act for the establishment of an Asylum for the Insane in this State. It is not to be supposed that the effort then made was at all premature; and if there really existed a neces

sity for such provision at that time, how great must be that necessity now! Providence has not arrested the progress of the disease, because the State has neglected to provide for its victims. On the contrary, the causes which produce it have continued in full and constant operation, and the penalty of that neglect has necessarily followed. No institution in our country has cured less than fifty per cent. of all committed to its charge, and in recent cases the proportion of recoveries is far greater. We have no means of ascertaining definitely, but we know that a majority of those upon whom this affliction has fallen during the past ten years, have been allowed to sink into hopeless incurability, and the expense of their life-long maintenance entailed upon the public. The number of insane in the State is now about four hundred and fifty, of whom at least three hundred are, at the present moment, proper subjects for Asylum treatment.

The utterly wretched condition of a large proportion of these helpless beings, is well known. We do not desire to give greater publicity to the instances of inhuman neglect now disgracing our State. If required, to establish the necessity of at once opening the Institution, the following extract from a late report of the Superintendents of the Poor of one of our counties, upon the condition of its jail, will suffice:

"The whole number of persons confined in said jail, during the six months preceding the first day of November, was one thousand and sixty-four, and they were confined for the following causes, viz: Murder, three; arson, one; burglary, six; grand larceny, eight; drunkerness and disorderly conduct, two hundred and thirty-eight; insane, eighteen. The prison is in a reasonable state of cleanliness. * * The prisoners say that they have enough to eat; but many are in want of proper clothing. * * * Some are shirtless, and some are without panta

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loons. The turnkey of the prison says that those that are destitute have destroyed their clothing.

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There are four apartments, four cells in each. Three apartments are for males and one for the females. The prisoners can freely converse with each other in their respective apartments, and it is impossible to prevent it.

"The jail is in a delapidated condition. The cupola is yet seriously complained of on account of its leaking every time that it rains, materially damaging the building, and making several of the rooms and halls damp and wet, and the plastering to fall off."

The Superintendents of the Poor, who make the above report, are not so devoid of humanity or so blind to the interests of the county they represent, as to sanction any such course as this. However painful to them, it is their only alternative. The disease fastens itself upon one and another, eighteen in the short period of six months in that single county-and they must be cast into a prison because the State has neglected to make the provision she should for their care. It is for no crime committed that they are thus thrust into a jail, and compelled to herd with thieves and murderers. They are suffering under the se verest form of disease flesh is heir to; the poor victim may be one whose reason has tottered beneath the cares and responsibilities of some labor of duty and affection. A father, perhaps, of broken constitution, who has sunk beneath his anxieties to provide for a suffering family; a mother, whose night-watches by the sick bed have been exchanged for the sleepless vigils of insanity; or, as was really the fact, a daughter whose efforts to support a wid owed mother and an orphaned family, had been too much for her frail strength. It matters not in what manner God has visited the affliction upon them, they are insane, and the jail is their only refuge and security.

We need not speculate as to the probable condition of

these unfortunates thus cruelly incarcerated, nor be surprised if some in their wretchedness should tear the clothing from their bodies and rend themselves. Nor need we ask how many of those eighteen will go forth from that jail" clothed and in their right mind," and be again restored to the domestic circle and to the benefits of society.

Justice, economy and humanity, therefore, make it the duty as well as the policy of the State to make suitable provision for all of its insane. This obligation has been already recognized and discharged as far as the establishment and partial erection of the building is concerned.

We have shown the urgent necessity for its immediate completion, and it now remains for us to suggest, and urge upon your honorable body the adoption of the course best calculated to meet the present exigency. As before stated, a portion of the Asylum is now completed. The Medical Superintendent who was directed in October last to assume his position in order to supervise its internal arrangements, and to assist and advise us in preparing for its opening, is here. We have succeeded with the limited means at our disposal in preparing apartments for ninety patients of one sex, and that number can be received as soon as means are provided us for procuring the necessary furniture and fixtures.

When finished, no other institution in our country will be provided with more perfect facilities for the complete classification of its patients, and the entire separation of the sexes. The portion of the house now prepared for use, however, constitutes about two-thirds of the male department, and of course has no provision for such separation. We are fully aware that the relief afforded in receiving only one sex, will be but partial; but we dare not jeopardize the success of our Medical Superintendent, or peril the reputation of the institution, by incurring the risks which would attend an attempt to treat both sexes

without any means for keeping them apart. The force of this will be readily perceived. Indeed, when Dr. Van Deu. sen assented to the plan proposed, it was under an assurance we felt no hesitation in giving, that there should be no delay in preparing the entire wing for patients, in order to secure to him and the Asylum, advantages for successful treatment bearing some comparison to those enjoyed by his professional colleagues in sister institutions.

Nevertheless, the reception of ninety patients, even of one sex, will afford great relief throughout the State. But it is quite as necessary, both for the Asylum and the Insane, that provision should be immediately made for the other sex. This can be readily accomplished by the reconstruction of the center building, which will render the first longitudinal wing, with accommodations for fifty patients, available, and without which the entire wing will be useless. It will also be necessary to erect the chapel, beneath which are the general kitchen and store rooms, an infirmary, for the purpose of isolation in cases of infectious disease, and the barn and out-buildings.

From estimates carefully prepared in detail, we find that the sum required for this purpose will be $90,500 00, and we respectfully, but very earnestly, urge upon the Legislature the appropriation of that amount. The Asylum can then be opened for the immediate reception of ninety patients, and in the following fall, the number will be increased to one hundred and forty-four.

In addition to this appropriation, there will also be required the necessary statutory provision for the administration of the affairs of the Asylum, and the control of the officers. This is a matter of the highest importance, as upon the proper organization of the Institution its success solely depends. It defines the position of the officers, assigns their duties, and creates those close restrictions upon the exercise of power, essential to the perfect discipline of the Asylum, and without which virtue, talent and