hope to get a new kitchen, dining-room, chapel, and perhaps a house for the superintendent, in one building, and two separate mansions, one for each sex, in each of which from 10 to 20 quiet patients and convalescents can be accommodated, as in the best private establishments." In Utica, N. Y., one of the four large buildings for the accommodation of 1000 patients, is finished, and ready for the reception of patients, and the government of the institution is about being organized. In New Jersey, commissioners are appointed to fix the location of a State Asylum, ascertain the cost of the same, determine what buildings will be necessary, and report to the next legislature. In Pennsylvania, a good law is enacted, and commissioners were appointed to carry it into effect; but we learn by a private letter from a well-informed gentleman in Philadelphia, that there have been strange doings in the premises, and that no desirable progress has, in his opinion, been made. We are not at liberty to publish the letter. It is sad that such an object should be deferred by such means. ASYLUMS FROM WHICH WE HAVE RECEIVED NO REPORTS. From the Williamsburg Asylum, Virginia, we have received no information, and seen no report. So far as our information extends, the annual reports of this institution are not published. If we mistake not, there is no one thing more calculated to promote the improvement and usefulness of an Insane Asylum, than the publication of an annual report. This is well illustrated at the other Asylum in Virginia. Dr. Stribling's reports are of great value, not only to the Asylum at Staunton, but to the world. We hope another year will secure the publication of a valuable report from the Asylum at Williamsburg-the oldest Asylum exclusively for the Insane in the United States. In South Carolina, also, so far as we know, the annual reports concerning the Asylum at Columbia are not published. Dr. Earle says of it, "The state has appropriated 100,000 dollars to this institution. Nothing further than this can be said of it for want of data." We have written expressly to obtain information, but have not been able to obtain it. We sincerely hope that this public institution, which has been so liberally patronized, will fall into the good way of almost all the rest, in publishing an annual report. From Georgia, too, no information comes in the form of annual reports, concerning the Asylum at Milledgeville. Dr. Earle says, "We can say nothing in regard to its extent, organization, or success." The Rev. Mr. Barrett, the agent of this Society for the Middle and Southern States, visited it last year, and says, "An Insane Hospital, two miles from Milledgeville, on rising ground, amid lofty pines, is being erected. It is designed to accommodate 160 patients. One four-story building, of brick, with convenient rooms, will be ready for the reception of patients this year, i. e. in 1841. The state has granted $37,000 for the erection of the Hospital. It is not designed exclusively for the insane poor." In Louisiana, concerning the Insane Asylum at New Orleans, Dr. Edward Jarvis, of Louisville, Kenn., in his invaluable pamphlet, "What shall we do for the Insane?" published in February, 1842, says, "The Insane Asylum at New Orleans is simply a building in the yard of that noble institution the Charity Hospital, of which it is a branch. It is built well, strong, and perhaps convenient; certainly it will answer the purpose of security. But there is such a small extent of grounds, so little room for exercise, so little preparation for labor, amusement, or other occupation, that surely they have not the usual, and, what is elsewhere supposed, the necessary facilities for curing the insane, and we ought not to expect as much from them as from others. This Asylum, however, has as yet hardly gone into operation, and we leave it to develop its powers, and to manifest its results. By these shall it be judged hereafter." In Tennessee, the Insane Asylum at Nashville has furnished no report. Dr. Jarvis says, it is "richly endowed by the state, and can accommodate about 100 patients. Farther than this we are not informed." The Rev. Mr. Barrett says, "It is a little way out of the city of Nashville. A high wall of stone, laid in mortar, enclosing seven acres, is a great and needless expense. The Hospital building, near the centre of the enclosed space, is four stories high, and has well-arranged rooms sufficient to accommodate 100 patients." It had been occupied, at the time of his visit, in 1841, about one year, and had 15 patients, of whom five were females. It is designed both for pay patients and poor lunatics. 50,000 dollars had been expended on it. In Kentucky, Dr. Jarvis, of Louisville, says, at the close of his pamphlet, “We are happy to give testimony here, to the great improvement of the Kentucky Asylum within the last year, under the faithful care of Dr. Bush. The report for 1841 is more satisfactory than any that preceded it, and shows a greater success than in any former year. This account is corroborated by other and independent sources of information. "We are informed that there is no doubt that the legislature will grant to the Asylum all the facilities that its warmest friends desire a well-paid physician, a sufficient corps of attendants, and lands and shops for the occupation of the patients. When this shall be done, our own Asylum will be second to none in the country." DR. WHITE'S PRIVATE ASYLUM IN HUDSON, N. Y. It is located in the city of Hudson, on the east bank of Hudson River, on an eminence overlooking the river, about three fourths of a mile from it, in full view of the Catskill Mountains and other grand and beautiful objects of nature. The quantity of land is too limited, not much exceeding one acre. The building accommodates about 60 patients. The institution has been in operation many years; is under the care of men highly esteemed Dr. White and son; has received from its commencement about 600 patients, and has restored about 250, and greatly improved many more. CAUSES OF INSANITY IN SEVEN ASYLUMS. 6 31 3 388 35 24 6 21 1 2 1 3 77 13 58 15 301 204 26 9 16 14 360 208 34 2 7 25 32 24 16 39 23 at Worcester. Massachusetts Lunatic Hospital, Bloomingdale Asylum, N. Y v榦¦ ¦¦ ~~w: Doo Western Lunatic Asylum, Vir. 3 Ohio Lunatic Asylum, for one aswa:: aa: „NGSTED Ohio Asylum, for three Years. 22145024 12 46 Important lessons in favor of temperance, care of health, purity, submission, faith in Christ, supreme love to God, and against all inordinate affection and ambition, are taught in this table. TABULAR VIEW OF ELEVEN LUNATIC ASYLUMS, IN 1841. From this table it appears that the whole number under treatment during the year was 2,113 Number remaining at the close of the year, Whole number recovered, Average number during the year, Number of deaths during the year, Proportion of deaths, 1 in 11. Proportion recovered, 40 per cent. of all received. 96 PREMATURE REMOVAL OF PATIENTS FROM INSANE HOSPITALS, AND THE INDISCREET VISITS OF FRIENDS. Dr. Ray, of the Insane Hospital in Maine, says, 6 "In many instances, towns have determined to give their insane poor the benefits of a few months' residence with us. This is certainly a most commendable measure; but it is neither just to the institution, nor to the patient, to place him here, with the calculation of removing him at the end of a certain time, whatever may be the result of the experiment. The most that can be done, in so short a time, in the greater portion of cases, is to render the patient more comfortable, and improve his personal habits, all which is generally lost soon after his removal from the Hospital. Three, and even twelve months,' says Dr. Woodward, are considered too short a period to make a decided impression upon some chronic cases, that, by a persevering application of medical, moral, and intellectual means, will ultimately be restored.' In a pecuniary point of view, it certainly must be more economical to give such cases a fair trial of Hospital treatment, than to fix them at once, and forever, as a life-charge upon the town or their friends. We have had to witness the removal of some who were greatly improving, and would probably have recovered, merely because the time had expired for which the towns had voted to keep them here. An additional outlay of fifty or a hundred dollars would probably have restored them to health, and enabled them to support themselves; whereas, now, the most of them will become a yearly burden, that will accumulate, before they die, to thousands of dollars. Table 8, in which we have compared the expenses of some of our old cases with those of an equal number of our last-discharged recent cases, while in the Hospital, should be pondered well by those who look at this matter solely in an economical point of view. It must be recollected, too, that these old cases are yet to be supported as long as they live, and some of them may be expected to live many years. In view of these facts, then, we would say to towns, 'If you conclude to send us your insane poor, let not their term of residence be fixed beforehand, but be governed by the circumstances of each particular case, remembering that, so long as there continues to be any improvement, we may hope for a final cure.' "But it is in regard to recent cases, that we have most to deplore this impatience of friends, which leads to a premature removal of the patient; because perseverance is so generally crowned with success. The signs of improvement are mistaken for those of recovery, and the fact of the strong tendency of insanity to relapse when the patient is prematurely exposed to causes of excitement, is but little known or heeded. Because the reason is no longer disturbed by delusions, and the patient craves employment; because the affections have revived, and memory fondly reverts to home, with all its endearments; it by no means follows that the mind is fully restored. These, it is true, are favorable symptoms; but they are symptoms of improvement merely, not of recovery, as the result of removal generally proves. They indicate the approach of convalescence, -or that stage of the disease in which seclusion and quiet are more necessary even than in any other, and that, too, in which injudicious management is more injurious than in any other. Instances of the lamentable consequences of the mistake in question have been painfully frequent with us during the past year. A notice of some of these cases may serve to deepen the impression we are desirous of making on this point. — A man, who had been six weeks insane before admission, had so far improved at the end of a month, that he became interested in whatever was going on around him, and worked the greater part of the day. At this time, he was visited by his wife, who found him raking hay. She concluded that he had |