Report of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, for the
year 1849. By Thomas S. Kirkbride, M. D., Physician to the
Institution. Published by order of the Board of Managers.
The report of Dr. Kirkbride represents this institution in a most
flourishing condition. During the past year additional buildings
have been erected, and increased accommodations and facilities for
classification afforded, that place it in the front rank of similar
institutions. It now contains sixteen distinct wards—eight for
each sex—and ample room for 200 patients, and all the attendants
whom it may be desirable to employ in their care. The whole
number in the hospital during the year was 408, and the average
number under treatment during the entire period was 210.
Notwithstanding the presence of cholera in our midst, and
indeed to a fearful extent in an institution within sight of them,
not a single case occurred in the Pennsylvania Hospital for the In-
sane, nor indeed a single case of acute sickness; a fact which
speaks volumes for the admirable hygienic arrangements of the
institution, and the unwearying vigilance of the medical officers.
We have on a previous occasion, like the present, taken occasion
to present to our readers, a review of the past history of the insane
department of the Pennsylvania Hospital; at no time did it ever
exhibit a more prosperous condition or more extended means of
alleviating the sufferings of this most interesting class of sufferers,
than it does at this period under the fostering care of its able
superintendent; and we wish that time and space were now
allowed us again, to lay before our readers the valuable informa-
tion in regard to buildings, warming, ventilation, and the various
details of moral and other treatment contained in this report;
but as this cannot be done, we cannot do better than refer them
to the Report itself, with the assurance that they will be amply
repaid in its perusal by seeing all that has been and is doing for
the relief of the insane.