Curwen.] ^ZU fjan. I6, 



with it as Trustee. Of his connection with the Pennsylvania Institution 

 for the Blind for more than forty years, and the great interest manifested 

 in the design and successful operation of that institution, and the great 

 faithfulness displayed in the very constant attendance at all the meetings 

 of the Managers, from few of which he was absent during the long period 

 of his service, others can better speak who are intimately connected with 

 it, but it may be permitted in this place to say from personal knowledge 

 that, next to the Hospital of whicli he was Superintendent, no institution 

 held a higher place in his regard and aflFection. 



He received from Lafayette College the Degree of LL.D. in recognition 

 of his eminent ability and the remarkable services rendered to suffering 

 humanity. 



While Dr. Kirkbride, by reason of his great ability and calm, deliberate 

 judgment, was called to the discharge of such important trusts, that to 

 which his life was really devoted and by which he will always be best 

 known, -was as Superintendent and Physician-in-Chief of the Pennsylva- 

 nia Hospital for the Insane. Assuming the administration of that trust 

 with reluctance and hesitation of his own ability properly to discharge Its 

 duties in the spirit and in the manner in which he believed all such duties 

 should be performed, he gave himself, mind and heart, to the work, in 

 the spirit of his own oft-repeated maxim — what was his duty, was his 

 pleasure. 



Association and friendship of the most intimate character, for almost 

 forty years, and constant correspondence for more than thirty years, give 

 to the writer an opportunity of an acquaintance with all his views on mat- 

 ters of common interest in the care of the insane, which enables him to 

 speak in the most positive manner of what those views and opinions were. 

 In every movement in medical societies, in the Legislature or in any other 

 way which had a bearing on the care and treatment of the insane, Dr. 

 Kirkbride, though not in all cases prominently before the public, was 

 always consulted and his counsel and advice earnestly sought, and for 

 thirty years, and these were years in which legislation was most active in 

 that direction, no measure of any importance was enacted in the inception 

 and progress of which he was not fully consulted in all the stages, and he 

 never hesitated to use all his influence with those with whom it would be 

 most effective, either in favor of any measure which might promote the 

 welfare of, or against any which might be injurious to, that class in which 

 he was so greatly interested. A proper estimate of his life-work can best 

 be obtained by a careful consideration, in the briefest manner to render 

 them clearly intelligible, of the various subjects which constantly and 

 steadily claimed his thought and attention. No man ever gave more care- 

 ful, assiduous, well directed and intelligent thought to all matters con- 

 nected with the construction of hospitals for the insane, and the fact that 

 the plan he elaborated, and which bears his name, has been incorporated 

 in buildings from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the 

 Atlantic to the Rocky mountains, clearly proves its thorough adaptation 



