1885.] ^^X [Curwen. 



to the purpose. It has been the fashion with some, who, with no practical 

 experience, have pushed themselves forward in matters connected with 

 building hospitals, to decry the plan as behind the age ; but their plans 

 have not yet been tried sufficiently long to prove their defects in all re- 

 spects, and those defects will be found at the very points where they 

 have departed from the well-considered details which he so carefully 

 worked out. 



"So different from ordinary buildings or other public structures are hos- 

 pitals for the insane, that it is hardly possible for an architect, however 

 skillful, or a board of commissioners, however intelligent and well-dis- 

 posed, unaided, to furnish such an institution with all the conveniences 

 and arrangements indispensable for the proper care and treatment of its 

 patients. Nothing but a practical familiarity with what is required can do 

 this. All recent experiments in phinning hospitals without consulting ex- 

 perts, or asking their opinions before the adoption of the plan, as should 

 be expected, have proved failures. No desire to make a beautiful and pic- 

 turesque exterior, should ever be allowed to interfere with the internal 

 arrangements, any more than the wish to have an elevated an-d command- 

 ing site should be permitted to compel the provision of costly roads, and 

 the expense and annoyance of having everything, in all future time, 

 carried to its great elevation. The interior should be first planned, and the 

 exterior so managed as not to spoil it in any of its details. 



"Although it is not desirable to have an elaborate and costly style of 

 architecture, it is, nevertheless, reallj'^ important that the building should 

 be in good taste, and that it should impress favorably, not only the 

 patients, but their friends and others who may visit it. A hospital for the 

 insane should always be of this character, it should have a cheerful and 

 comfortable appearance, everything repulsive and prison-like should be 

 carefully avoided, and even the means of effecting the proper degree of 

 security should be masked, as far as possible, by arrangements of a pleasant 

 and attractive description." 



This is not the place, nor would time permit, to go into an elaborate de- 

 scription of the plan, but it may suffice to state that its main features con- 

 sisted of a central building for all the administrative offices, with wings on 

 each side ; the first wing at right angles to the centre, and at the point of 

 junction a space of ten feet left with windows from floor to ceiling to give 

 ample light ; the second wing parallel with the first, but thrown back so 

 as to have windows from floor to ceiling at both ends of the hall, and the 

 third wing still parallel to the second, and the windows of a similar char- 

 acter at both ends of the hall. From this fact of the wings running parallel 

 with each other, it has been called also the linear plan. The halls of the 

 wings are twelve feet wide, and the ceilings of each story twelve feet 

 high ; rooms on both sides of the hall, and in the centre of the hall large 

 bay windows to give light, and afford a pleasant sitting-room for the in- 

 mates, in addition to the large parlor ; every ward to have in it all those 

 conveniences which may be requisite to promote the comfort and well- 



