46 THE CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE INSANE. 



States continued to be filled and tlie condition of tlie in- 

 sane poor became lamentable in the extreme. 



In the alms-houses in the immediate vicinity of cultured 

 Boston, Dr. Butler, the first superintendent of the Bos- 

 ton Lunatic Hospital, tells us many pitiable cases were 

 found. Even as late as 1839 he states that it was the 

 custom of the alms-houses of Massachusetts to keep the 

 violent cases in wooden cages and that as a specially hu- 

 mane feature the cages were put on wheels so that the 

 patients could te drawn out in the air in pleasant weather. 



A great step in advance in this State was made by the 

 passage of Chapter 294 of the Laws of 1827, which says 

 that " no lunatic shall be confined in any prison, jail or 

 house of correction, or confined in the same room with 

 any person charged with or convicted of any offense." 

 This was the beginning of a movement for the better- 

 ment of the condition of the insane which resulted, after 

 several failures and disappointments, in the establish- 

 ment of the State Lunatic Asylum at Utica. Governor 

 Throop, in 1830, '81 and '32, called the attention of the leg- 

 islature to the uncared for condition of the insane poor, 

 and Governor Marcy, in 1834, followed his example. As 

 a result a special committee was appointed in 1835, and in 

 1836 Chapter 82 authorized the establishment of the 

 State Lunatic Asylum at Utica. It was not opened, 

 however, for the admission of patients until the 16th of 

 January, 1843, seven years after the passage of the bill 

 authorizing its erection. 



In the meantime the needs of the insane had increased 

 so much that in the very first report the managers made 

 an earnest plea for the rapid enlaigement of the institu- 

 tion. As it had been founded solely with the intention 

 of caring for the acute insane, it can be readily under- 

 stood that the condition of the chronic 'insane was in no 

 wise bettered, but had on the other hand gone from bad to 

 worse. The report of MissDix, that noble woman whose 



