This is one of the largest and best conducted institutions of the kind in the country. The number of patients in December, 1849, was 429. Since received, 421. Since discharged, 229. Now remaining, 441. Of those discharged, 125 have recovered and returned to their former pursuits, 15 left with some amendment, 32 were incurable, and 57 died. Of the admissions in 1850, 45 were cases of periodical insanity, 44 of hereditary, 33 of homicidal, and 43 of suicidal propensities. Of the causes, 6 are described as resulting from intemperance, 16 from ill health, 11 from domestic afflictions, 13 from epilepsy, and 10 from puerperal fever. Of recent cases, the per centage of recoveries is 87, of old cases, 21-average per cent. of recoveries, 54. Of the whole number of patients at the close of the year, 181 are state paupers, and 169 are foreigners. The hospital, with all its enlargements, cannot properly accommodate more than 375 patients, while the average for the year is 440. The largest monthly average is shown to be in August last, when the whole number of patients was 454. The trustees speak of the excellent condition of the hospital, considering its over-crowded condition, and of the ability and kindness with which it is managed by Dr. Chandler and his assistants. THE PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE. We have received a copy of the annual report of Dr. Kirkbride, the physician to this Institution. It contains a very satisfactory account of the past year. "At the date of the previous report, there were 221 patients in the Institution.-During the year, 207 were admitted, 215 were discharged or died, and at the close of the year there were under care, 213. The total number in the hospital for 1850, was 428. The highest number at one time, was 235. The lowest 202. The average number under treatment 219. Of the patients discharged, 106 were cured, 20 much improved, 41 improved, 21 stationary, and 27 died. Of the patients discharged as cured, 44 were residents of the hospital not exceeding three months; 35 between three and six months; 26 between six months and one year; and 1 for more than one year. Of those discharged "much improved," 3 were under treatment less than three months; 10 between three and six months; 3 between six months and one year; and 4 for more than one year. "The admissions since the opening of the hospital till the close of the year 1850, were 1806. Discharges or deaths, 1593. Remaining, 213. Of the whole number there were 192 more males than females, and the inference therefore is, that insanity is of more frequent occurrence among men than women. The report is able throughout, and abounds with useful facts and suggestions. One of the tables shows the ages at which insanity first appeared in 1806 patients. We annex a few of the figures: "Another table shows the forms of the disease, for which 1806 patients were admitted. Thus : "All classes of insane persons, without reference to the durability or curability of the disease, are received into the Institution." THE STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM AT TRENTON, N. J. We are indebted to Thomas J. Stryker, Esq., one of the managers, for a copy of the fourth annual report of this large and well-conducted institution. "The asylum was first opened for the reception of patients on the 15th of May, 1848, and the number of patients at the institution on the 5th of January, 1849, the date of the second annual report, was 83. On the 1st of January, 1850, the date of the third report, the number had increased to 110, being about 33 per cent. The number at the date of this report is 162, being an increase of about 45 per cent. during the past year. "3 patients were discharged cured, during the first year; 58 were discharged cured or improved, during the second year; and 44 have been discharged cured or improved, during the last year. The whole number of patients sent to the asylum, from the 15th of May, 1848, when it was first opened, to the date of this report, has been 292, of which 105 have been restored to society, either entirely cured of their malady, or the disease so far mitigated as to warrant their return to their friends. These results, independent of the fact that the condition and sufferings of those who remain are greatly meliorated, furnish a subject for the most consoling reflection to all who rejoice in the welfare of the afflicted and unfortunate." The labor system, upon which we subjoin some useful remarks from a foreign journal, has been adopted at the New Jersey asylum, and the following are the results: Referring to the gardening and farming operations, the managers say: "From these two sources we have realized, the past year, a product amounting in value to $1962 37, while the whole expenditure for wages, repairs, and keeping of stock, has only amounted to $1153-showing a clear gain to the institution of $809 37. We have expended $107 for manure, during the year, and about $200 in increase of stock; and we hope, as time progresses, to be able still greatly to improve the farm land, and increase its productiveness." How strikingly do the aforegoing statistics contrast the present enlightened treatment of the insane with the severity and wanton neglect to which they were once subjected! Professor Morris remarks: "In former times the poor lunatic was regarded as the smitten object of divine vengeance, and any remedial agents that might be employed were wholly discarded," or, as said by a writer, 'the healing art proclaimed itself utterly unable to minister to the mind diseased. Jails and dungeons were the places in which they were kept, and the sufferings to which they were subject were well calculated to deepen into incurable gloom the mildest form that it might assume. 'Chains, rags, filth, the strait-jacket, exposure to cold or heat, and not unfrequently the ready infliction of stripes upon slight provocation, were the most · promising features of their treatment.' It is stated, that in a monastery in the south of France, humanely consecrated by its inmates and founders, to the care of the insane, in pursuance of a fixed regulation, every lunatic received ten lashes a day,' and in one large English asylum, the superintendent sometimes absented himself two months; and in another, with five hundred patients, it was an established regulation that all, without any exception, should be bled in June, and take each, four emetics per annum. "In 1792, St. Vincent de Paul, in Paris, made the first successful effort for their relief, in procuring their release from chains and furnishing them with better treatment, food, &c." And now the most carefully conducted asylums in Europe and America depend principally on comfort, indulgence, and occupation, together with moral motives for the cure of the lunatic. Religious exercises, reading, amusement, labor, regularity in food and labor, the inculcation of habits of order, and general propriety, are the curatives at present employed in ministering to the mind diseased." We close with a quotation from Chambers's Journal, which is corroborative of what we have just said in relation to the occupations of the insane. "The change that has taken place of late years in the treatment of insane patients, presents one of the finest features in the civilization of the age; but the boon of wholesome labor is, perhaps, the greatest benefit that has yet been conferred upon this class of sufferers. The fact is strikingly illustrated in the annual report for the last year of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum. The number of patients treated was 738, and, at the close of the year, there remained as inmates 476. Of this latter number, upward of 80 were employed daily, and sometimes as many as 100, working in the open air in the extensive grounds of the Asylum. 'Among these,' says Dr. Skae, may be daily seen many of the most violent and destructive of the inmates busily engaged in wheeling earth, manure, or stones, who for years have done little else than destroy their clothing, or spend their days and nights in restless agitation, or incoherent raving. The strong necessity which appears to exist, in many cases, for continual movement, or incessant noise, seems to find vent as naturally in active manual labor, if it can with any propriety be substituted and regulated.' 6 "In the same manner the females have been gradually broken into the habits of industry to a degree hitherto unprecedented. Those who have done nothing for many years but mutter to themselves, or crouch in corners, now sew or knit from morning till |