On the Lunatic Asylums in the United States. 



able than in foreign countries, still the proportion is one that de- 

 serves the serious attention of every philanthropist and statesman. 

 We have but one Asylum incorporated by the government for the 

 safe-keeping and management of upwards of 800 lunatics and 

 1400 idiots; and it has been the practice until very lately to confine 

 many paupers of the above description, either in county jails, or 

 poor-houses, or in private dwellings. 



In April, 1827, an act was passed by the legislature, forbidding 

 the confinement of any lunatic or idiot in a prison or house of cor- 

 rection ; nor is it even permitted to confine in this way a person 

 furiously mad. High penalties are prescribed for violating the 

 law. The utility of these enactments is already witnessed. In 

 the county of Albany, commodious apartments, separated from the 

 main body of the alms-house, have been completed for its pauper 

 insane, and by an act passed in March, 1823, the county of 

 Washington is allowed to raise a certain sum of money for the 

 erection of such additional buildings as may be deemed necessary 

 and proper for the idiot and lunatic paupers. 



Our commendation must, however, end in an acknowledgment 

 of the increased attention paid by the legislature to the proper safe- 

 keeping of this unfortunate class of beings. The system itself 

 is radically defective. It does not make the requisite provision 

 for their cure — it is far from effecting the necessary confinement — 

 it does not sufficiently guard the public from the consequences of 

 furious madness— and finally, it is the most expensive mode of 

 providing for them. The experiment has been tried on a large 

 scale in Great Britain, and to condemn it I need only refer to the 

 tales of horror and of misery developed by an investigation into tho 

 condition of lunatics in county poor-houses. 



It is evident that the most humane, the most efficient, as well 

 as the most economical plan, would be, for the state to erect in its 

 various great divisions, extensive Lunatic Asylums, provided with 

 proper medical attendance, and all the safeguards so essential 

 both to the patients and the public. Let these be increased, if 

 the increase of the malady demands it. The burden of their 

 support will fall equally upon all ; the success of their treatment 



, to wear out a miserable existence, new trophies might 

 be gained for the medical art, and many valuable citizens restored 

 to their families and the community. 



