No. 8. 



Editorial Notices. 



263 



Dr. Kirkbride is entitled to our thanks for his 

 "Report of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," 

 for the past year, published by direction of the Board 

 of Managers. 



Those who take pleasure in the advanced comforts 

 of the afflicted, cannot fail to rejoice at the change 

 which has been introduced into our best Institutions, 

 within the last quarter of a century, in relation to the 

 treatment of Insanity. The prevailing disposition 

 also, in the comiuunity, to assign to this disease its 

 proper position among those to which we are liable, 

 is cheering to such as are labouring for its melioration, 

 and whose experience and acquaintance with it in its 

 different forms, confirm them in the conviction that it 

 is with proper treatment, in a very large majority of 

 cases, curable. " It should never be forgotten," says 

 the Doctor, "that every individual who has a brain, is 

 liable to insanity, precisely as every one who has 

 lungs, is liable to pneumonia; or as every one with a 

 stomach, runs the risk at some period, of being a mar- 

 tyr to dyspepsia." How greatly then is each one of 

 us interested in tlie prevalence of a correct public 

 opinion, respecting the true nature of this malady, 

 and in the proper management of those Institutions 

 which have been " prepared and endowed by enlight- 

 ened benevolence, and provided with all the conveni- 

 ences and fixtures likely to contribute to the restora- 

 tion and comfort of their inmates !" 



The average number of patients in 1843, was 132; 

 and the whole number under care during the year, was 

 258; and of these 68 were discharged, cured, and seven 

 much improved. 



From the whole tenor of the Report, we have formed 

 a high opinion of the general economy of the Institu 

 lion, and of the high character of that intelligence 

 which has devised, and so successfully carries into 

 operation, a system remarkably calculated to diminish 

 the aggregate of wretchedness, and to infuse in its 

 place, the cheering influences of hope. A convincing 

 proof of the efficiency of that system is aflbrded in 

 the fact, that more than one half the average number 

 under care last year, were discharged, cured. The 

 sentiment is a cheering one, that is confidently ad- 

 vanced by Doctor Kirkbride, that "no case of insanity 

 Should be deemed hopeless, that has not been more 

 than a year under treatment." The result of experi- 

 ence is, "that at least eighty per cent, of all cases 

 promptly and judiciously treated, recover." A highly 

 interesting part of the Report assures us, that "during 

 several months of the past year, a well conducted 

 weekly paper was regularly issued from one of tlie 

 wards. It originated entirely with patients— was con- 

 ducted solely by them — the contents were almost 

 wholly original, and from their pens, and the tone of 

 the paper, and the leading articles would compare very 

 favourably w'ith much of the periodical literature of 

 the day." 



Restraint, we know, is in many instances indispen- 

 sable — but how much more satisfactorily does the mind 

 dwell upon the amusements and enjoyments of the in- 

 sane, than upon the straight jacket and the strap. 



FRUIT AND ORNAMENTAL TREES, EVER- 

 GREENS, SHRUBBERY, &c., 

 In great variety, for sale as heretofore, by the sub- 

 scriber, at his Nursery, near Haddington, four miles 

 west of Philadelphia. Orders sent by mail, or left at 

 the office of the Farmers' Cabinet— where Catalogues 

 may be obtained— will be attended to, and the trees 

 well packed, when ordered to distant places. City 

 gardeners supplied with trees suitable for the streets, 

 at a liberal discount. SAMUEL RHOADS. 



Third mo. 15th, 1844. 



We keep on hand at this office, and will supply our 

 friends with Agricultural works generally. Among 

 which are 



THE FARMER'S ENCYCLOPEDIA, full- 

 bound in leather;— Price $4 00 

 YOUATT ON THE HORSE, with J. S. Skin- 



ner's very valuable Additions; 2 00 



THE AMERICAN POULTRY BOOK; 37^ 



THE FARMER'S LAND MEASURER; 37i 



DANA'S MUCK MANUAL; 60 



Complete sets of the FARMERS' CABINET, 



half-bound, 7 vols. 5 75 



BEVAN on the HONEY BEE, 31i 



JOHNSTON'S Agricultural Works. 

 LIEBIG'S AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY, 25 

 ANIMAL CHEMISTRY, 25 



FAMILIAR LETTERS, 12J 



As well as his larger works on Chemistry and Agri- 

 culture. 



Subscriptions will be received for Colman's Agri- 

 cultural Tour in England and on the Continent. 

 Hj" We are prepared to bind books to order. 



53" TO RENT— and possession given on the 1st of 

 fourth month next, a small Farm near this city, which 

 has been occupied for some years past as a Milk Farm 

 Apply at the office of the Farmers' Cabinet. 



gj' We would like our subscribers to remember, that 

 every facility is offered for the transmission of the 

 small sums due us, in the authority given by law to 

 post-masters, to frank remittances to publishers. The 

 Farmers' Cabinet owes much to the kindness and cour- 

 tesy of post-masters in this matter, and it affords us 

 pleasure, thus publicly to acknowledge it. 



FOR SALE.— A fine BULL, three years old this 

 spring — out of an imported Alderney Cow, and by 

 Mr. Kelly's Durham Bull.— Apply to Robert Reed, at 

 Woodside, Blockley, near the Columbia Inclined plane. 



March Sth, 1844. 



The quantity of rain and melted snow which fell du- 

 ring the Second month, (Feb.,) 1844, was nearly an 



inch and a half. 1.449 in. 



Penn. Hospital, 2rd mo. 1st. 



The thermometer during the last month, was at one 

 time at sunrise, but 10 degrees above zero ; and only 

 ahont four inches of snow have fallen at any one time 

 in this city, through the past winter. 



This is the season for transplanting trees. We are 

 aware that there are some things to discourage the 

 farmer in relation to his orchards: but persevere. 

 There is hardly an outlay that will pay better: and 

 let it be remembered by the man who is looking for- 

 ward to planting an orchard some day, that its post- 

 ponement for a twelvemonth, is a year, so far as re- 

 spects this part of his plans, irrecoverably lost. 



