INSANE ASYLUMS.
Efforts are making in Michigan for the erection of an Asylum for
the Insane, at Kalamazoo. The Detroit Tribune, in speaking of this
movement, justly remarks that, “in respect to Insane Asylums, Phila-
delphia was the pioneer.”
The Pennsylvania Hospital, having an insane department, was
founded in 1752, and is the oldest in the country. For eighty-nine
years patients were received at the Institution in the city, during
which time 4367 were admitted. In the year 1841, the new building
in Blockley township having been completed, the insane patients were
removed thither, from which time, until the commencement of 1849,
there were received (including those transferred to it from the city)
1391 patients. The whole number received in the period, from the
foundation of the Hospital till January, 1849, is 5647. The total
number in the “ Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane,” during the
year 1848, was 403. The highest number was 208, the lowest 188 ;
and the average number under treatment during the entire period was
199. This Institution is now capable of accommodating 220 patients
with their attendants, and of a classification of them into eight distinct
divisions of each sex, with the fixtures and conveniences required for
their proper custody and treatment.
There is another Institution at Frankford, near Philadelphia, under
the management of the Society of Friends, capable of accommodating
about 80 patients. The Philadelphia Almshouse has also recently under-
gone extensive modifications and improvements, under the supervision of
the principal physician, Dr. Benedict, (recently appointed successor
to Dr. Brigham,) which have placed it upon a footing with the best
institutions in the country.
These Institutions, together with the State Asylum at Harrisburg,
now building, will in the course of a very short time enable Pennsyl-
vania to accommodate upwards of 1000 insane patients, a fact which
cannot be otherwise than gratifying to every benevolent mind, when
it is remembered that for those who are visited with insanity, be they
rich or poor, a hospital is the only resource.