i88.5.] 219 [Curwen. 



Asylum at Trenton, and to some extent in the plans of the State Lunatic 

 Hospital at Harrisburg. These frequent consultations, joined with a natu- 

 ral fondness for architecture and building led him to prepare his book on 

 the construction of hospitals for the insane, the first edition of which 

 appeared in 1856, and the second and enlarged edition in 1880, having 

 been arranged and prepared for the press during the convalescence from a 

 severe illness which lasted many months and brought him very close to 

 the borders of the unseen world. 



In no work in the English language are the true principles of the con- 

 struction, arraugemeijt, and organization of hospitals for the insane more 

 lucidly and more thoroughly set forth than in the last edition of that book, 

 and were its precepts obeyed and its plans more closely followed, very few 

 of those mistakes would be made in the arrangement of hospitals which 

 give so much trouble and are so costly in their rearrangement. 



He early entertained the idea of the separation of the sexes in buildings 

 under the same general management, and this plan was more fully devel- 

 oped in the report tor 1854. He labored with the greatest assiduity to 

 collect by private subscription the money needed for the erection of such 

 a building on the part of the property west of the hospital then in opera- 

 tion, and so faithfully did he give himself to this work and so zealously 

 was he supported by the Managers of the Hospital that the greater part of 

 the money was subscribed, and "the first stone of the new building was 

 laid on July 7, 1856. 



"The formal laying of the corner-stone took place on the first of October, 

 in the presence of a large number of ladies and gentlemen ; on which 

 occasion, addresses were made by Professor George B. Wood, M.D.; 

 Eichard Vaux, Mayor of Philadelphia ; Mordecai L. Dawson, President of 

 the Board of Managers, and Morton McMichael" 



"The building was formally opened for the reception of patients on the 

 twenty-seventh of October, 1859. The cost of the new Hospital with all 

 its out-buildings, the wall surrounding its grounds, all its varied and ex- 

 pensive fixtures of every kind and the furniture in use, amounted to the 

 sum of $355,907.57. This whole sum has been paid, or there are in hand 

 abundant means for doing so, to be derived from unrealized subscriptions 

 and from ground rents. 



"The fact that this whole work has been provided and paid for entirely 

 from private subscriptions is worthy of remembrance in our local history." 



When the Board of Trustees of the Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hos- 

 pital at Harrisburg was appointed by Governor Wm. F. Johnston, in 1851, 

 Dr. Kirkbride was one of the Board, and continued in service until 1862. 

 He took an active and energetic part in the organization of that Hospital, 

 and his long experience and thorough knowledge gave him an influence 

 with his colleagues which he exerted to place that institution in the best 

 possible condition for the promotion of the welfare of its inmates ; and no 

 man ever had a more faithful and efficient friend and counsellor in all 

 matters than the Superintendent of that Hospital during his connection 



