STATE CENSUS 1864. TOTAL RECEIVED. TOTAL DISCHARGED RECEIVED IN 1867. DISCHARGED IN '67. REMAINING.

Last spring our wards had become closed or nearly so, to further admissions, by the large number of incurables under our care. Applications for the admission of recent cases, had become very numerous, and as the north wing was advancing rapidly towards completion, it was deemed the most judicious course to suggest the temporary return to the counties of a limited number of harmless incurables, and to receive in their stead, recent cases only; thus, for the time being, giving preference to private patients (if recent,) over county patients, but only when incurable.

Previous to this time, the return of incurable county patients had been only at the instance of the county officers, and was generally resorted to by them simply to create vacancies for other and more urgent cases of their own county. As before, the objection to the adoption of this course, was the apparent sanction of the poor house as a proper place for the incurable insane, a sanction the less intelligent officers are not slow to use in justifying removals, which their own consciences assure them are wholly improper. It was with great reluctance that we finally yielded to the pressure. Though justified by the over-crowded state of the wards, and although it has enabled us to receive a large number of recent cases, many already restored, who must otherwise have been deprived of treatment altogether; still, if it shall lead to the adoption, by a single county, of the practice of caring for its incurable insane in the poor house, it will be a misfortune for which no amount of good can compensate.

The propriety of insuring the Institution against loss by fire has often presented itself. The Trustees, in their report for 1861-2, submitted the question to the Legislature, and it has also been presented to the joint committees of the Senate and House of Representatives, on the occasion of their official visits. No instructions having been received, the Trustees have hitherto refrained from assuming any responsibility in the matter.

Important as are the pecuniary interests involved in the

question of insurance, they are quite insignificant in comparison with those which will be best subserved by rendering the building itself secure from the danger of fire. The occurrence of a conflagration in such an institution as this is, a catastrophe too dreadful to contemplate, and it seems an imperative duty to take such steps as will quite effectually relieve us of the possibility of such a calamity. Circumstances unnecessary to allude to here have so forcibly impressed this as a duty that it is impossible to longer refrain from presenting it to you, with a few suggestions. A reliable steam pump in the engine room, a cast iron pipe properly distributed, with suitable valves and attachments, and a supply of strong hose would constitute the material means; and a carefully disciplined fire corps from our resident employees, always instructed to meet any emergency, would be able to apply these in such manner as to render the danger of an extensive fire very slight. Steam could be used if water failed, and at certain points which, indeed, are the only vulnerable ones, would possess great advantage over the latter in extinguishing flames. The sum required to carry this scheme into effect is not more than the cost of insurance for a period of eighteen months or two years, and as the preservation of the building would be more valuable to the State than a sum equal to twice or thrice its valuation, there seems to be really no choice between the two.

All the wards are as nearly fire-proof as it is possible to make them, and a fire occurring in and confined to them, could be easily controlled, but to the attics, with their long ventilating trunks and shafts extending up into the towers, it is impossible to apply any system of fire-proof construction, without enormous expense. The same may be said of the centre building. As you are aware, a vigilant system of supervision is in constant operation; a watchman passes through and about the building each half-hour during the night, and the connections between the centre and each wing are fire proof. Still, such a system as that suggested, is the only one which can reduce this fearful risk to the lowest point.

In letters of application, the immediate admission of the patient is very frequently urged, on the ground that the means of attendance at hand are exhausted. The members of the family, they write, have been made ill by watching, and the neighbors have become so wearied as to be unwilling to serve longer. Strong and vigorous men are sometimes actually obliged after but a single day's attendance upon a case of acute mania to leave the house, too ill and "unstrung" to render any further assistance. This is not due to the fatigue of watching alone, neither to the deprivation of regular hours of rest, but to a peculiar nervous exhaustion of a distressing character, from which unaccustomed attendants slowly recover.

Careful education and discipline, the peculiar appliances of an institution, and its perfected means of caring for this class of sufferers, of course greatly diminishes the labor of attendance; still the duties of all engaged in the immediate care of the insane are very harassing and exhausting. Many find it impossible to meet this large demand upon their physical and nervous energies; they cannot sleep under the weight of responsibility and constant vigilance imposed, and are forced to resign. As a general rule, individuals old enough to have fully formed their habits, cannot accommodate themselves to Asylum life, and become discouraged and indifferent or apathetic and irritable. The young more easily accustom themselves to the varied peculiarities of their patients, recover more quickly after being submitted to depressing cares, and, when occasion demands can be inspirited and encouraged to efforts which might well be considered quite beyond their years and ability.

Attendants are expected to familiarize, and accustom themselves to the observance of a code of rules and regulations designed to meet and counteract all ordinary causes of accident. It is obvious that special directions cannot take the place of these more general rules. To point out this patient as suicidal and another as homicidal would induce an irritating surveillance, exhausting to the one and annoying to the other, and calculated to keep in operation in the mind of