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ADDRESS.
DELIYKUKU AT THK
LAVING OF THE CORNER  STONE
or THK
IXSANE  HOSPIT-AL.
AT
NOliTHAMPTOX. MASSAdHT'SETTS.
V
1JV EDWARD JAUV1S, M. 1).
       NORTHAMPTON :
i> u i n t i: D iiv j. & t..  mi:tcai,i\
         1 s -") 0 
 
ADDRESS,
DELIVERED AT THE
LAYING OF THE  CORNER STONE
OF THE
INSANE  HOSPITAL,
AT
NORTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS,
BY EDWARD JARVIS, M. D.
3 tW& ,'<S
^2-  ■ uuv
        NORTHAMPTON :
PRINTED BY J. & L. METOALF.

          1856. 
 
ADDRESS.
            DIVERSITIES OF HUMAN CONDITION.

  The varieties of human condition and the apparent diver-
sities of earthly destiny have been the subjects of observation
and of complaint almost from the beginning.   For many ages,
the world, through all the grades of barbarism and of culture,
have seen and mourned over this, and though men of high and
of low  degree, governments and statesmen,  philanthropists,
religionists and associations have desired and endeavored to
remove  the inequalities of the human lot,  still we are even
now compelled to acknowledge that  in all that belongs to
man,  or that enters into his being, in  all that surrounds him
or affects him,  in all his endowments and blessings, his priva-
tions  and  sufferings,  there  is no uniformity.  Few are, in all
respects, alike.  Men differ in all things, and in  some they
differ very widely.

  Some are endowed with certain powers  or enjoyments in
the fullest measure, most  have them in a medium degree, and
some are nearly, while others are quite, destitute of them.

  Some are rich in this world's goods, many are in comfortable
circumstances, and others are very poor.

  Few  are learned  in  a high degree,  most have sufficient
knowledge for the safe management of the affairs of life, and
some are grossly ignorant. 
4
  Many are in the highest state  of bodily health and  vigor,
most are strong enough to provide their own sustenance, while
some are sick and need the care of others.

  To  compensate, in  some measure,  for this discrepancy of
blessings, there is  implanted  in  man a  love for his race,  a
recognition, that all  are the  children of the same Loving
Father—and there  is also in him a general desire—if not to
equalize—certainly to impart  something  to  those who have
the least or who are destitute,  and  thereby alleviate their
sufferings,  raise them somewhat  toward the level  of their
fellows and save them  all from  destruction.

  There  is a general  and acknowledged obligation resting on
mankind for the strong to protect and aid  the  weak,—the rich
to provide for the poor, the wise to guide the foolish,—the
healthy to nurse the sick,—and the sound  in mind to  cure and
care for the insane.

  The higher the state of civilization, the  more are  these
obligations recognized—and the stronger and the purer  the
Christian principle,  the greater  will  be their influence on
men's  hearts  and  lives;—for  as civilization advances  and
Christianity prevails, men love  each other  more and more, and
their love  becomes a principle and  that principle a  practice,
and that practice a habit of life.

  Civilization  improves the  circumstances  of man's earthly
condition,  it multiplies  comforts, it increases prosperity, it
diminishes the burdens on men's lives and fortunes, it amelio-
rates the manners, it cultivates  the understanding and removes
the obstacles to human progress.

  Christianity looks  deeper  into man, it  increases happiness
and lessens suffering.  It elevates the ideal of the present as
well as of the future being.

  So  in  the progress  of the  world, both  governments and
people,  associations  and individuals manifest their  faith by
their works and provide more and more the means of relieving 
§
want, of supporting the weak, and of comforting the sufferers,
of every sort, and in every condition.

              DIVERSITIES OF  MENTAL HEALTH.
  Among the inequalities, that belong to mankind, that of
mental  power and mental health is marked and prominent.
As  in bodily health and  strength, and as in education and
fortune and all external circumstances, so in the powers of the
mind, there  are  every  variety and degree from the highest
down to the lowest.  From him who is the wisest and the best
balanced, down to him who is the weakest and the wildest in
intellect, there is every grade of power and health of mind.

               CAUSES  OF MENTAL DISORDER.
  Some of the causes of these  mental diversities are  inherent
in man.  Some  are  born  with him.  Many are created and
developed  and  grown, in  the progress of his being.   Some of
these causes  are  intimately connected with the condition and
the affairs of common  life.  They belong to, or grow out of,
many of the customs and presumed advantages of the cultivated
state.   They are  often the mere perversion or the misapplica-
tion of  some of the powers of  our being, of the privileges of
our condition, the excessive or the misdirected use of some of
the natural and living forces,  the indiscreet appropriation of
some of the opportunities and blessings offered to man and
to society.

  These powers and privileges, when rightly employed, build
man up and make him strong and successful and happy.  But
when they are misapplied, or unfitted to the circumstances of
life, they overthrow and distress him.
  In their appropriate use, they are allowed and encouraged—
they are practiced by, and render profit to, general society,
and all  are advised to make use of, and try to enjoy, them.
But though they are successfully used by many, yet it is only
under appropriate circumstances,  that they produce or sustain
mental  health or leave it unimpaired,  for, in other conditions, 
6
 they exhaust  and disturb the  mind and the moral  affections.
 Not unfrequently they cause  intellectual weakness and some-
 times  mental derangement, and  then,  when  least expected,
 insanity is  established.   So  it often proves,  that the very
 means which bring the most desirable blessings to those who
 use  them judiciously and in most men's hands are successful,
 are, to the indiscreet and the unfortunate,  the sources of one
 of the direst evils that falls upon humanity.

  Among the fruitful causes of insanity are inappropriate and
 perverted application of the powers of the mind and body, the
 intemperate or excessive use of the gifts or the opportunities
 allowed to us, the things, which a benevolent Providence lends
 us for  blessings,  and are such, in the  hands of the wise and
 faithful:—
  The intemperate indulgence of  every appetite, passion and
 propensity,  of every faculty and poAver  of  body or  of mind,
 beyond their due measure, or beyond that, which is required
 of them:—The excessive use of food  and drinks, especially of
 those of the stimulating  sort:—The excessive action and the
 misappropriation  of the mental forces :—The overwrought
 feelings and emotions :—The eager desire and the earnest but
 unsuccessful  exertion  to  acquire  knowledge  or position  or
 influence,  to obtain any blessing or advantage which is above
 the power of him who  strives for it, and who for this purpose,
 makes  exertions which  are beyond the power of the brain  or
 mind to sustain without faltering :—all these tend to produce
 and frequently create mental disorder.

  Misplaced hope and undue ambition, the overwhelming and
 insatiable anxiety to secure that which seems to be within the
 grasp,  but yet is beyond the  reach, and the disappointment
 which necessarily follows, when failure comes:—The fluctua-
 tions of business :—The  high seeming prosperity followed by
 certain  adversity:—The  sudden possession  of  unaccustomed
 wealth:—The elevation to positions of power or responsibility,
 of honor, fashion  or social rank, which are beyond the mental
 or moral strength or above the degree of cultivation or refine-
ment necessary to su<taiii them with ease or satisfaction : 
7
  The  assumption  of any burden  upon the  mind  or the
feelings, the brain  or  the  nervous system which the  natural
and  original forces, the previous training and education and
the  experience of  life have  not  prepared  one sufficiently
to bear :

  The deep depressions of grief, the corroding and exhausting
anxieties  of doubt  and of fear  and the  heavy sorrows that
weigh on  the heart, when friends are in danger or are lost:

  The excitements of Religion above what true piety and
godliness  require, of politics, of party, or  benevolence  beyond
what reason and  truth can justify.  The imagination when
highly wrought in regard to things infinite and eternal, and to
mortal man incomprehensible and unattainable, and even when
unnaturally  bent  on  things  of  lower and more intelligible
nature:—All these are dangerous  to  mental health.   They
frequently impair it and sometimes destroy it.

  The manifold accidents from machinery, from travel, from
the use of powers, that are converted, but  not always subdued,
to the use of man :—*
  * The reports of sixteen Hospitals, in the United States, give the supposed
cause of the insanity of 14,941 out of 24,723 patients received during all or a
part of the years of their operation.
  The causes are condensed and classified in the following table.
Ill health of various kinds,		3586
Apoplexy, Epilepsy and Palsy,		592
Female Derangements,		1415
Injuries and Accidents,		338
Exposures to Heat, Cold, &c,		226
Excess of Labor, Privation of Sleep, &c	■i	522
Excess of Study, Mental Struggles, Excitements, &c,		472
Anxieties, struggles and trials of Business, Poverty, &c,		1134
Disappointments in respect to Ambition,	Property, &c,	156
Disappointed Love,		559
Spirit Rappings and Mesmerism,		182
Fright and Fear,		182
Home sickness,		46
Grief, Sorrow and Anxiety,		1549
Domestic Troubles, Persecutions, &c,		665
Connected with Religion,		1280
Bad Education, Wrong Plan of Life,		67
Intemperance,		1788
Use of Tobacco and Opium,		110
Vicious Indulgence,		1011
Bad Temper, Passion, &c,		161
 
s
   These  are among the many causes of mental derangement,
 and they are or they seem to be  the  most prominent and
 frequent  here, in our State and Nation.

   In their  lesser and  more  proper degrees, most of these or
 rather the steps that lead to these are  tolerated and  encour-
 aged by public opinion.  Many of them receive its high appro-
 bation, and people engage  in  them  or are exposed to  them
 with hopes of advantage or justifiable enjoyment, and  feelings
 of security, and with no suspicion, that any evil  may  come
 upon their  minds or that they may thereby be drawn into
 lunacy.

 SOME CAUSES OF MENTAL DISORDER BELONG  TO THE CIVILIZED
                          STATE.
   Many of  these  causes  of mental  disorder, or  rather the
 customs,  habits or indulgences, out of which  these  causes
 grow, are inherent in the very structure of society—they  form
 a part of  its frame work:  They enter into and add  their part
 to the life of our social being.  They belong especially to the
 more cultivated condition such as  we enjoy,  in  this most
 favored land.  For here the mind is free and the choice of all
 things is offered to all men to select that which they may have
 power to obtain.

   Here no man is bound down to the condition or the walk
 or the  occupation  of his fathers,  nor even  to that which he
 himself is now following, but all the walks and  employments
 are open to all men, and at  all times, and  they may  select
 whatever they wish, whether fitted or unfitted to their capacity
 and powers, and they may change as often as it pleases  them.
 Here education  is free to every child  and to every man  and
 woman, and learning  may grow luxuriantly even on the soil,
 which barren ignorance covered  before, if one will  but take
 the trouble to cultivate it.

  Here  Religion invites all  to  come and enjoy any of  her
diversified  forms,  each in the way best  suited to  his own
mental condition or his conscience. 
9
  Here every man and every woman may believe and proclaim
any doctrine  or the  principles of any party; and they may
pour  forth their convictions, with all the  zeal of  earnest
propagandism.
  Here emotions may bum and speak out,  and passion may
riot unrestrained.

  These  blessings, privileges  or opportunities belong to our
civilized state and cannot here be extinguished.

  A higher civilization, than we possess or even the world has
yet known, would restrain these within the just limits  of
prudence, and  health, and make  them, in all cases, subserve
the greater interests and create the best happiness of man.


        EDUCATION IMPERFECT FOR MENTAL HEALTH.
  There is yet more for our civilization to do.  We need more
and better knowledge of ourselves, and of our powers, their
nature and their limit, their uses and their relation to the
outer world.

  We need more self-discipline, more control of our emotions,
and desires, of  our appetites and our passions.

  When  we  educate  our children or ourselves, we  need  to
know the precise limit of the power to acquire knowledge.
When we  grasp at privileges, or blessings or positions,  we
need  to know the extent of the arm to reach and the strength
of the hand to  hold.

  When we assume any burdens on the mind or the affections,
we need to understand,  how far we  are able to bear them.
Before we attempt to effect any purpose, we ought  to under-
stand  the degree of our  energy to  labor and the measure  of
our strength to accomplish.

  It is a common and favorite notion, that the human mind,
man's  immortal  part, has an unlimited power of labor,  of 
10
 acquisition, and of endurance.  But  this has no foundation in
 the laws of our present being.  The immortal  mind, so long
 as it dwells in the body,  is necessarily connected with the
 brain, and is subject  to its conditions, and liable to its suffer-
 ings and yet this essential and irrevocable law of life is neither
 recognized nor taught as a matter of universal ®r even general
 obligation.  We  educate  our  children  in  the schools and
 ourselves at our homes, or in the world—but we neither learn
 for  ourselves nor do'  we tell  them,  that there  is a  bound
 beyond  which our mental exertions cannot safely go,  a limit
 of acquirement which cannot  be passed.  We neither  learn
 nor teach the connection between the mind and  the brain, the
 relation  of the mental operations,  the emotions  and passions
 to the  physical frame,  and thus  the  conditions which are
 appointed  for all  the  human family, for the government of
 their lives and  the use of their powers,  seem to  be left out of
 sight, in our education and preparation for responsible life.

   Our youth go forth to the world  and we walk and labor i»
 it, with ours  and their mental  machinery in  the  highest
 condition we see fit  to place it;—but  it sometimes lacks a
 balance wheel  and may move irregularly, it may run too fast
 and get out of  order r it may be  applied to unfitting purposes
 and thereby be broken, it may be over-tasked or over-worked
 —thence mental disturbance in a greater or  less degree may
 appear, and derangement may sometimes ensue and perhaps
 insanity be established.

   Diseases of the mind must then come upon us and they will
 return again and again so  long as education is thus imperfect
 and whenever and  wherever men's habits and customs,  their
 plans of  life and their self-management are not in accordance
 with their powers and the condition of their beino-


   SOME CAUSES OF INSANITY  INCREASE  WITH  CIVILIZATION.
t It is a melancholy consideration, that some  of  these causes
increase m extent  and powers  with the  elevation and  the 
11
'growth of society, and perhaps  insanity from  these  sources
may increase faster in this country than the numbers of the
people.

   Within forty years previous  to 1850, the  population of
Massachusetts  increased  one  hundred  and ten  per  cent.
And  that  of the United States  two  hundred and  twenty
per cent.

   Yet the number of persons,  male and female, in our  State
and  Nation, who, with or without previous training or powers
duly  developed, task their  minds and  their brains  to  their
utmost, have increased in  a much greater ratio.

   The numbers of those who are, or who strive to be, highly
educated,—who engage in new studies*—who undertake  to be
philosophers,  chemists, mathematicians, phrenologists,  bota-
nists,  or  adepts in  some  other  science—who endeavor to
fathom the mysteries of theology, who explore the  range of
history, literature, or criticism—who take deep  interest in
new principles and  doctrines, who engage in partizan move-
ments,—who  bear the burdens of new enterprizes, who  strive
to gain new positions, or  struggle to sustain themselves  there
when once attained,—the numbers of those who change from
quiet and undisturbing to active and anxious modes of life, of
those who cease the labor of their hands and betake themselves
to the labor of their brains, the numbers of the farmers who
become merchants, of the mechanics whti become manufactu-
rers,  of  those who  leave  any  sure occupation  to become
speculators, or engage in hazardous schemes, and, with their
unaccustomed  minds, rush into untried fields of enterprise,—
the numbers of those who are raised to high and responsible
conditions from low and irresponsible ones,—of  those who are
subject to reverses  and disappointments, of those who are
exposed to accidents and injuries from machinery, from travel,
from  chemical action, and of those whose health suffers from
excessive and  irregular  mental exertion,  or from the artificial
and  unnatural  customs of fashionable life:—the numbers of 
12
these—and of those among  them, who impair and who are
liable to  lose their mental  health, have  increased,  in a much
greater ratio, than the population of either the State or Nation.


        DUTY OF SOCIETY TO CARE FOR  THE INSANE.
  Seeing then, that society establishes, encourages  or permits
these customs out of which mental disorder may and  frequently
does arise and is willing to enjoy and  profit  by them,  and
moreover seeing, that it raises no beacons to warn the careless
and  the  indiscreet, and  builds  no safeguards to protect the
weak and the unfortunate from impairing or losing their minds
through  them,—it  would  seem to be incumbent  upon the
body politic, as far as possible, to remedy that evil, whenever
and wherever it may present itself.  Beside the general  obli-
gation resting upon every civilized State to sustain and protect
all its weaker or suffering members who  cannot do these for
themselves, it is then the especial duty of the Commonwealth
to heal the wounds it inflicts or allows to be inflicted and to
provide the means of  curing and protecting its insane.


            INSANITY  INQUIRY IN MASSACHUSETTS.
  It is a marked step in civilization, when  society acknowl-
edges  this obligation to relieve its  weaker members,  and
especially those who  suffer  from its  admitted  imperfections,
and thus to make amends for the deficiencies of  its  own  law.
And the higher the degree of the social progress,  the more
carefully does the State search  out  its  feeble and suffering
children and the more freely does  it  offer them  the means of
relief.  In this matter Massachusetts has vindicated  her claim
to a high degree of advancement.
  In 1854,  the Legislature ordered, that a Commission, to be
appointed by the Governor, should be authorized and directed
—1st, To ascertain the number and condition of the insane in
the  Commonwealth,  and 2d, To see  what farther accommo-
dations, if any, are needed for the relief and care of the insane. 
13
  This Commission, presuming that the domestic condition of
every family was known to some practitioner of medicine, and
that they would obtain a fuller and more reliable account  of
the insane by the aid  of the medical profession than  in any
other way, sent their letters of inquiry to every physician  in
the State.

  In  their letters they asked thirteen questions  in respect  to
every insane  man and  woman within  the knowledge of each
informer.
  Among  these,  they asked the name, sex, age, birth-place,
form and  state of  disease; whether suitable for a Hospital or
not;  whether  curable or  incurable;  whether supported by
the public treasury or by their own property or friends; and
whether he  or she  had enjoyed the  opportunity  of being
healed in any hospital.

  There were  thirteen hundred and nineteen of these physi-
cians who  were reliable  witnesses and  then in  practice, and
had therefore opportunities of observation, whose testimony
was therefore  desirable.   All of these, but four,  returned
answers to the  inquiries of the Commission.

  Beside this, inquiry was made of one hundred and forty-six
others,—Clergymen, Overseers of the Poor,  Superintendents
of Hospitals in this and other States,  Masters of  the several
Houses of Correction,  Sheriffs, and  Superintendents  of  the
State Alms Houses, &c, and these made answers corroborating
or adding  to the information given by the physicians.  Con-
sidering the  intimate  relation which the medical profession
hold  to their several families, it is manifest,  that they have
better means of observing the facts that were sought and that
they offered a better channel for obtaining them than could be
otherwise found.   And as they responded almost universally,
their testimony may be considered as all but complete  and to
cover the  whole ground.   The letters from the same  towns,
where two or more physicians or others reported and also the
returns from  all the  Hospitals and other public establishments 
14
in  respect to  each  of their several  towns, were  carefully
compared  and those who were reported more than once were
erased in the duplicates and  thus the danger of counting any
patient more than once, was avoided.*
 NUMBER  AND  CONDITION OF THE INSANE IN MASSACHUSETTS.
  The  result  of  this  whole  survey shows, that there were
2632 insane persons in and belonging to the State of Massa-
chusetts in 1854.

  That 1713 of them were, in the opinion of the physicians,
fit  subjects for  Hospital care, either because  their  diseases
were of recent origin  and they could be restored by proper
means, or because they were excitable or violent and should
have the  protection and  the restraints of a Hospital for their
own security and for that of the community.

   One thousand and fifty nine of these were in the Hospitals
of  this State and ninety-one in the Hospitals of other States.
   Besides these, there were one hundred and  sixty-seven  in
the prisons and  in the receptacles connected with them and
forty in the State Alms Houses.
   The State  Hospitals  at Worcester  and Taunton  had  six
hundred  and twenty patients with  accommodations for only
five  hundred  and  seventy-seven, and the  City  Hospital   of
  * It is not to be claimed, that this is absolutely complete, and that no families
escaped the notice of these observers.  Undoubtedly there were some, who,
e tl er by their own migrations or in the changes of the physicians, had not been
broughV to the notice of any of those witnesses who reported the towns where

^ll^iSL. Finted the report of the Commissi^  in 1855 four
cafes of insanttyhave been brought to their knowledge, which had escaped the
n0Uce of the physician.                         ^ ^ a legal


and was reported  by both, ^rtjc^™.     to another patient.


 2632 originally reported in the State in 18o4. 
15
Boston had two hundred and sixty-seven with room for only
two hundred.  The McLean Asylum with accommodations for
two hundred was full, but forty-seven of the patients belonged
to other States.*
  Six  hundred and  ten of those insane  persons who were at
their  homes, were stated, by the physicians and  others, that
reported them, to be proper subjects for hospital treatment or
care, for their  own or the public good.
   Two hundred and five of these were supposed to be curable,
if the suitable means should be applied, and  the others were
troublesome or dangerous and therefore needed the  restraints
and influence of some institution to save them from harm, and
the community from disturbance.

   This great and fearful amount of insanity thus brought to
light,  by this  Commission, was surprising to most  people, but
it was not unexpected  to  those who were familiar with the
subject.

   Besides these  six hundred and ten insane  persons at their
homes, whose cases presented  a  claim for  aid,  there were
others in the  Hospitals at Worcester and  Boston and  in  the
receptacles and  prisons who needed more or better accom-
modations than they could there enjoy.  And those who had
the charge of  these institutions  complained, that the pressure
of their crowded inmates or the unsuitableness of their estab-
lishments rendered  it  impossible  for them to give to their
patients  the  healing  and the  soothing influences which are
needed in the management of mental diseases.

   * The following shows  the accommodations in the several Hospitals and the
 number of patients in them  in 1854.
      Hospitals.                      Accommodations       Numoer of
                                    for Patients.         Patients.
      Worcester,           .     .      327t             364
      Taunton,     ...       .250              256
      McLean,       ...     200              200
      Boston,      .     .             200              267
      Private,        ...       35               19
  tin 1855, the Trustees of the Hospital at Worcester converted some of the lodging rooms in
each of the wards into day rooms and thereby diminished the capacity of the Institution, so that
it can now properly contain only two hundred and eighty seven patients, and at this moment,
July 3d, 1856, it has seventy five more than it has room for.
  The Trustees of the Hospital at Taunton have increased its capacity by the removal of the
strong rooms and substituting others in their place. 
10
 THE LEGISLATURE MADE  FARTHER  PROVISION  FOR THE INSANE.
   As soon as these facts were laid  before the Legislature  in
 1855,  that  body took the matter  into  careful and  serious
 consideration, and after cautious investigation, they resolved,
 without a single dissenting voice or vote,  to  make  farther
 provision for the cure or the  protection of these suffering
 insane,  and for that purpose to build this Hospital.

   On former occasions like this, the Government has waited
 until the cry for relief, loud and  earnest and long continued,
 had gone forth from  the insane or their friends.  Before the
 Hospital  at  Taunton was  built, the State waited until five
 hundred and sixty eight patients had accumulated in the three
 hundred and twenty seven rooms  then in the Institution  at
 Worcester, and  others were waiting at their homes,  because
 there was no space for them to enter.

   Before the Hospital was built at Worcester, the prisons  in
 the  counties held many maniacs,  and the poor houses were
 frequently provided with strong rooms and  cages to confine
 their lunatics.  Except the McLean Asylum at Charlestown,
 then a small  but excellent institution, there was no means  of
 healing  offered  in the State.   Beside the McLean Asylum
 there were no places of  refuge  for these  sufferers, but these
jails and cages if they were violent,—and none at all, if they
 were mild and harmless.

   The  philanthropist saw this  with pain, and the political
 economist with dissatisfaction.   There was needless  suffering
 and no hope of relief.  There was a heavy cost and no probable
 end but with life.  However long  the lunatic might lie in his
 prison or his  cage, he was no nearer his restoration, and there
 was no  escape from  his malady or  his prison house,  except
 through the gate of death.

   In both cases the Government waited as long as the  suffer-
 ing could be borne or the relief be postponed, until  the cry
 increased to a clamor, and the clamor to an irresistible demand
 for Hospital accommodations. 
17
   The same delay has  been  manifested in other States,  and
their Governments too have postponed action, until humanity
became clamorous and would wait no longer.

   The  Legislature of Massachusetts  in  1855,  wisely  took
counsel of the past.   They saw, that there was then a need of
more  Hospitals, and they knew, that this need went not back-
ward.   It would be useless to postpone the work, in expecta-
tion,  that this  necessity would  cease  or diminish,  for  such
always had increased both here and elsewhere,  and this too
must  grow greater, year after year.*
   They therefore  determined  to  erect  this  Hospital,  at the
earliest moment.
   They carefully counted the cost, and freely gave the means.
They appropriated all that was asked, by the friends of the
measure,—all that it was supposed  would be needed, for the
  * There are no positive records, which can be used to demonstrate to a math-
ematical certainty, the increase or the decrease of insanity in this or  in any
other State or country. No government  has made two  complete and reliable
enumerations of the lunatics among the people, at two different periods, which
could be used as the basis of comparison.
  Most national enumerations of this class of persons, carry evidence of imper-
fectness on their very face and are therefore unreliable.
  The census of the United States gave  16,804 insane and idiots in 1840 and
31,397 in 1850.   The former is known to be inaccurate in many of its  details
and the latter  is probably incomplete, and  no reliance can be placed  on the
comparison of these two numbers.
  Both the English and the French statements are manifestly imperfect.   In the
former some  important classes of the insane were omitted, and in the latter the
numbers are loosely given and many of them plainly conjectural.
  Nevertheless all the enumerations of the insane, for whatever purpose, and all
the statements and complaints respecting  their numbers both in Europe and in
America, tend to show, that more and more of this class of sufferers appear to
the public from time to time, and that this increase more than keeps pace with
the population.  A part of this apparent increase of the numbers of the  insane
is unquestionably due to the increase of attention to their maladies and a part to
the progress of the disease, from the influence of existing causes.
  The records of Hospitals devoted to the care  of these patients both here and
elsewhere show a great increase of the demand for their accommodations.
  Forty years ago, there was but one Hospital in the United States devoted
exclusively to this purpose.  In 1820, there were three; in 1830, eight; in 1840,
                          3 
IS
land  and  the house.   The grant was free as well as generous.
There was no restriction, except that the institution should be
in one of  the four western counties, and it should be used for
the good of the insane.


              CHARACTER OF  THE NEW  HOSPITAL.
   The  Governor immediately appointed a  Board of Commis-
sioners required  by the  Law,  and  they were authorized  and
directed to select a place and build the Hospital.
   These  Commissioners  have selected  a site in  Northampton,
which, for healthralness of location, beauty of  prospect,  and
convenience of access, is equal to any other.   It  is endowed
with every facility  needed  for its  purpose,  and must  ever
gratify the friends of the insane.
fourteen; in 1845, twenty; in 1850, twenty seven; and in 1855, thirty seven,
all in active operation, beside four others in the course of preparation.
  The records and the reports of all of these thirty seven institutions have been
examined, excepting those of Georgia from  the beginning, Louisiana for 1854
and 1855,  and California for 1855.   It should be stated also, that the pauper
Hospital of New York  did not publish the number of patients received, during
the years 1834 to 1846, inclusive.
  Disregarding  the omission at New  York  and assuming, that  the other two
hospitals, not including that of  Georgia, admitted  as  many patients in  those
years, of which no report is received, as they did in their last previously reported
years, the following will show the progress  of the demand for Hospital accom-
modations within the last twenty six years in the United States.
Years.  Patients admitted.   Years.   Patients admitted.   Years. Patients admitted.
1830	332	1839	949	1848	3070
1831	379	1840	999	1849	3082
1832	481	1841	1145	1850	3144
1833	639	1842	1105	1851	3491
1834	456	1843	1634	1852	3736
1835	461	1844	1725	1853	4151
1836	545	1845	2004	1854	4243
1837	628	1846	2107	1855	4383
1838	697	1847	2723		
  The above does not  include  those who are  known to be removed from one
Hospital to another, as those from Worcester to Taunton, in 1854.
  The number of patients under care and the  average numbers during these
years show a similar progress. 
19
  The Commissioners  have adopted  a plan that  includes all
the modern improvements,  and will present to the world and
the insane the best model of  such an establishment which the
intelligence and  the benevolence of the present and past ages
have produced.

  Without doubt, a Hospital  might be built for less cost, than
they will  build  this.   But that would not be such as the
present time  demands nor  such as  is wanted here.   The
Commissioners, with that far reaching economy, that  governs
every wise man or mechanic in the  conduct of  the  farm or
workshop, selected  the best plan, because that will accomplish
its  object the most easily and  effectually, and because the
officers can heal more of their patients, and in a shorter period
of time in such a house.  There is  then economy in such a
selection,  because it costs  less for the daily management; the
duration of disease, and of residence in the establishment will
be  shorter and  a greater  number will be  restored or made
comfortable in such a  Hospital as this is intended to  be than
one less suited  to  its purpose.  But the restoration of any
under the favoring  influences of  a  good Hospital,  who might
otherwise have remained in permanent lunacy, the restoration
■of even a few to life and responsibility and usefulness, to the
enjoyment and  affections of  home and friends, far outweighs
all considerations of money, and demands that the Commis-
sioners should give, as  they are now giving  you, the best
institution the intelligence of the world has yet devised.
    DUTY OF THE  PEOPLE IN RESPECT TO THE HOSPITAL.

  In  this measure the State is one party and you, the people
are another—and you are to co-operate together here.  You
must  therefore  agree  and  walk in  harmony to effect one
purpose, and receiving, and offering  the opportunity of cure
to, all of the insane that may, from time to time, appear among
you,  restore as many  of  them as  possible  to health and
usefulness again. 
20
   The Hospital, however skillfully designed  and constructed,
can do nothing alone, there must  be people  to sustain it and
patients to fill it.

   You then, you the people, have duties as well as the State,
and  these obligations will rest upon  you,  as long as  the
Hospital  shall endure,  or as  long as you and your children
and  your children's children shall be subject to the terrible
disease or diseases, which this house  is  established to cure or
alleviate.

         INSANITY  WILL  APPEAR, FROM  AGE TO AGE.
   So far as the record of man goes backward, we  know that
insanity has  been in the world,  and  it is now found  in every
nation.   It  is more prevalent  in the  civilized than in  the
savage  state.  It  is supposed  to be more  frequent in  the
highly than  in the lesser cultivated  nations—and we  have it
here as much as, and perhaps more than, most other countries.
   You have had it and you have it now among you. The late
survey shows how abundantly it prevails here, and  how much
you need  the means of relief.*
   Judging by the past, we cannot hope for a better condition
in the future in this matter, unless  the life and  condition of
mankind shall be  changed.

   So far as the causes of mental  maladies have  been ascer-
tained, they will not cease with the present year nor with the
present generation.  They belong to man and to  society as
  *The following facts were received, by the Commission on Insanity, from the
Physicians and others, who were acquainted with the condition of the Insane
and Idiots in the four western counties in 1854.
 Counties.           Insane.     Fit subjects      Violent     Total subjects
                           for a Hospital.     Idiots.    for a Hospital.
Berkshire,           119          69           9          78
Franklin,             84          44           1          45
Hampden,            94          59           l          60
Hampshire,          105          41           4          45
402         _>13          15         228 
21
now constituted,  and they will continue to act as they have
acted, and the coming years do not seem to  promise any less
of their influence.

  Until we and you shall have studied  out all these sources
of mental disorder, and laid bare even  its  hidden fountains,
and  until we shall conform all our social and individual lives,
our  plans and  our habits, our thoughts  and  our affections  to
the  perfect law of health,  we shall  still be subject to this
malady.   If there is no change  in the  causes,  there will  be
none in the results, and  the next year will furnish as many
new cases of insanity, in  proportion to the population, as the
last year, and  the next generation will  be as fruitful  of this
disease as that which now lives on the earth.
    NECESSITY OF SOME ACTION  TO RELIEVE THE INSANE.
  It should naturally be our first object to prevent this great
evil.  But if we cannot do this, our next duty is to make it as
light and as short as we can, and cure the insane as they, from
time to time shall have lost their reason.
  This  is our present purpose, and for this we to-day lay the
corner stone of this Hospital, for this the  lands have been
purchased  and will be  laid out and  the house is to  be built
and finished, and for this we have every ground of hope,  and
abundant encouragement.
  We engage in no vain undertaking.  We know how much
has been done and how much can  be done  to relieve  the
maladies of the mind.
  The Legislature made no idle promise, when they said,  that
this Hospital will be very profitable  to the  State and its peo-
ple, for insanity is one of the most curable of severe  diseases.
It is one of the most costly if neglected, for it continues through
life, but the expense of restoration is comparatively small.
  Some insane  persons,  if left to themselves, will  recover.
But most of  them require some aid,  some change  at least of
habit and of  life and often of condition, of circumstance and
treatment, in  order to secure their recovery. 
•>■-)
THE INSANE MUST BE REMOVED FROM THE CAUSES OF THE MALADY.

  Maladies of the mind, like those of the  body, require that
the causes that  produced them shall cease to act upon them.
This is the first  step in the cure of all diseases, and it  is the
dictate of common sense that  governs most  of mankind in
their ordinary affairs.

  "When one  is excited with fever, we enjoin rest.

  When he  has dysentery or dyspepsia, we suspend irritating
food.

  When he  has a cold, we  keep him warm.   Beside  these
manifest causes  and  palpable  changes  in the system,  the
sensations,  in these  diseases,  are changed and the  bodily
sensibilities perverted  so that those things, which are usually
agreeable and proper in health,  become not only injurious but
offensive in sickness.   Then  the  stomach  cannot digest and
the appetite  revolts  at,  the food which was most  digestible
and nutritious and acceptable to the palate in other conditions,
and that which  would give pleasure  and vigor in  one case,
would  fan  the flame of disease  and  nauseate  the stomach in
the other.

  In these cases, so far as we can understand  or reach them,
we suspend  the action of, or remove the  patient  from, the
sources of disease, and from the circumstances, that would
keep it up.   This  is even more necessary in the management
of the  diseases of the mind than of the body, and yet it is not
so easily accomplished.   We can suspend and control the
causes  of, or the  evil influences that bear upon, bodily disorder
at home.   We  can find  comfortable resting places for our
fevered children hi our own chambers.   We can change our
diet and discipline our appetites without going abroad; we
can rest from our labors, we can warm our flesh, in our own
dwellings, and at the same time enjoy the companionship, the
nursing care, and  the  affectionate sympathy of our families
and dearest friends. 
23
    THE INSANE CANNOT BE USUALLY HEALED AT  HOME.

  Unfortunately the diseases of the mind frequently find their
origin in the circumstances and associations of home,  in the
cares and  anxieties of business, in the relations of neighbor-
hood, in the affairs of the town, in the movements of religious,
political or other associations, in the habits or indulgences
which are practiced.  Or when the diseases are once estab-
lished, they may be kept up by some of these.

  Moreover, the natural  perceptions and moral  sensibilities
being disordered, the scenes, circumstances, and the persons,
which are usually agreeable and favorable, in health, become
objects of aversion and sources  of irritation  and keep  the
disorder alive.
  In  insanity, the husband frequently becomes suspicious of
the wife and the wife of the husband, the parent of the child
and the child of the parent, and even passion and hate may be
manifested toward those who had been the objects of the most
unquestioning confidence and tenderest affection.
   As the lunatic cannot be separated from these,  while in his
own  house, he  must  go from  them  and generally among
strangers.   This is usually the first step  and such  patients are
often sent to visit and stay among friends, or to travel abroad.
This may sometimes be all that is necessary, but usually it is
not enough, for the great susceptibility of the disorder requires
a separation of the patient  not only from the  persons of his
own family and friends, and the scenes and circumstances of
his home, and neighborhood, and business, where his malady
may have originated or grown, but he must be separated from
all that would suggest them to him.   These must not be
presented   to  his  mind  by conversation,  by letters,  or by
association with persons or things that  are similar to them, or
 connected with them so as to bring back the old and perverted
 ideas and feelings.

   One who becomes deranged  by or  amidst  the  cares and
 perplexities of business, or domestic troubles,  should  not  be
 with those who will talk about his affairs or home. 
21
   If he was overcome by political or religious excitement or
other matter of absorbing interest, he would still be disturbed
by talking or associating with those who are connected with
them,  and even by letters, books and papers that represent
them.

   If his disorder was brought  on  by any especial study, he
must not only give up the books that relate to it, but he must
also avoid the persons who are interested in the same subjects
and who would lead his mind back to dwell upon them.

   It is needful then, that the mentally disordered not only go
away from home, but  be placed where all  the circumstances
and associations are different from those to which he has been
recently accustomed, and  where  all the influences that may
reach him, can be controlled and modified, so that none but
such as are favorable may affect him.

   Not only are the  sensations and sensibilities but the judg-
ment is  also  perverted.   Things and circumstances  have an
unnatural and a wrong value and relation in the mind of the
insane man.  Seeing these through his disordered fancy,  he
estimates them falsely, he miscalculates and misjudges.  Hence
he cannot manage  his  own or other's affairs with his usual
discretion. He may have strange plans, which are unfitted to
the things and the  world  as they actually are, and he conse-
quently may attempt to execute  his designs, which from their
very nature cannot or should not be accomplished.

   Added to these,  there  is often manifested in men who are
disordered in the brain a self-confidence,  amounting to wilful-
ness  that will not yield to the  persuasion of others, and will
not be influenced  by the motives that govern the world.

   The natural friends and relations being generally first dis-
trusted  by the insane  man,  if they object to  his  plans  or
oppose his purposes, and  endeavor to  lead him to think and
act as  he did  in health, he resists them, for they are the last
ones  to influence  him.   Other men who are not of  his family 
25
or even his friends, must assume this responsibility, and these
must  be strangers,  and among such the lunatic must go for
the best hope of restoration.

   Seeing  then that it is usually requisite,  that the insane
should be thus removed, not only from their friends and home,
and the  scenes and circumstances to which  they have lately
been  accustomed, but  also from such as would suggest  the
topics and matters that may have deeply interested and over-
come them, it is necessary to find a place of reparation where
no unfavorable influence shall reach them.

   FEW PRIVATE  FAMILIES CAN TAKE  CARE OF THE INSANE.
   There are few private families that can or will  consent to
take insane persons into their bosoms, and make the  sacrifice
of ease and comfort  necessary to care for them.  There  are
still fewer who have  the skill to manage and the power to
control them.  There are very few that possess the requisite
energy,  the unwavering and conscientious firmness that never
falters, and the discipline of  temper that is never disturbed.
There  are  few that  are fitted for,  and  can do  this work.
There are  many excitable and violent patients, who need  a
kind and degree of restraint  which no private families have
the means of applying.

       HOSPITALS THE  PROPER PLACES FOR THE INSANE.
   But all the qualities and all the circumstances and  facilities
needed for the cure  and the care of the insane belong to
proper public institutions  and  they will be found in  the
Hospital that is here and now begun.  In such establishments,
the officers and the attendants are selected on account of their
peculiar fitness for their work.  They have  the high intelli-
gence, the scientific knowledge, and the moral endowments of
gentleness, and firmness, and sympathy that  are required, and
they know how to occupy the diseased mind and lead it from
its morbid fancies, and fix it upon cheerful and  satisfactory
subjects. 
26
  The buildings are made sufficiently strong  to restrain the
willful and  the violent.   They are  secluded  from the  inter-
ference of the idle and the gaze of the curious.  They are airy
and cheerful for the despondent.   They have all  the arrange-
ments and conveniencies for the comfort and  the care of the
sick and  the feeble.  They have abundant  means of exercise,
of labor and amusement,  to meet all the varieties of feeling,
temper and habit of the patients, and to draw them away from
their insane  delusions and diseased  affections, and bring them
back to the natural and  healthy tone of thought and life.
          INSANITY CURABLE  IN  ITS EARLY STAGES.

  If insane persons are allowed to enjoy the means of healing
in the early stages of their disorder, within one year after it
appears, about 75 to 90 per cent, can be restored to health.

  But in this class of maladies,  time makes rapid  havoc, and
diminishes the chances of cure.  If the means of healing  are
not tried within the first year, the  ratio of cures  is reduced
perhaps a  half in the second  and still more in the  third year,
and when  five years of neglect shall  have elapsed, the hope of
restoration is reduced to a mere accident, which no human skill
can promise to accomplish.

  There are then the strongest motives that  humanity and
even  economy can offer for the early and the proper care of
the insane.  Now, in the  beginning of their disorder is their
time  to be restored, and the human mind to be saved from
destruction ; and with these grounds of hope if the means are
used  and  with the probable  loss and suffering if the time of
healing is permitted to  pass unimproved, it is natural and
reasonable to suppose,  that  none would be  neglected, none
would be left to sink into permanent insanity, none allowed
to  remain their life-long years, in the gloomy darkness or the
painful excitements of mental derangement. 
27
INSANITY, LIKE THE COMMON  EVILS  OF LIFE, SHOULD BE MET
                 AND  REMOVED PROMPTLY.
  Most men manage the common affairs of life with sufficient
wisdom.   They feel  it  incumbent  on them to repair the
damage which time or  accidents cause in the material things
which they use or possess.  They mend the  breaches in their
houses, shops, and other buildings and in their fences; they
clear their  pathways of obstructions, and their fields of weeds.
They keep their machines and their implements, their car-
riages and even their meanest vehicles in good order. Common
prudence dictates this, and public opinion demands it.  And
they feel a reproach of conscience and a blot  on their good
name if they neglect  it.  All this is well done,  but there are
other  things of still greater importance to  our comfort and
happiness and our well-being on earth, that should not be left
undone.
   The  human body,  where  man's  spirit dwells, the human
brain, the especial seat of  the intellect, is liable to  many
causes  of  injury, and may need to be watched and repair-
ed,  and saved from abiding  loss.    As this is  of more value
than many houses,  and of more worth than all the material
things we  use, there is so much more  reason for watching for
its least injury or decay and saving it from greater suffering.

   If we show such diligence in regard to the broken dwelling
or implement, how much more readily should we repair the
broken intellect and  relieve our friends  from  the destroying
spirit that may have come upon them!

   If we feel  it a good ground of reproach, when the breach
in our dwellings or the rust on our tools is allowed to increase
so far that reparation is impossible, what shall be said of those
who suffer the minds  of their own  relations or neighbors  to
waste away, until no human  art or effort can restore them!

   If your houses,  your fields, your fences, your machinery,
 even your vehicles are worthy of your vigilant watchfulness
and  your  prompt  interference to  stay the  progress of any 
28
destructive influence upon them, at whatever cost within their
value,  how great  should be your vigilance to  detect  and
prevent the growth of any blight or disease upon the brain of
your parent or child, or  brother or friend ?  And how much
more energetic and vigorous should be your exertions  to save
their precious minds and affections from present death!

   If the fallen house, the broken fence, the rusty implement,
the  weedy field are monuments of the improvidence of the
proprietor or occupant, how much more should  neglected and
permanent insanity be deemed  a monument of the faithless-
ness  or  inhumanity of those  who  should  have provided  the
means of healing!

   The  advantage of attending  to evils early, when they are
comparatively light and easily removed, has become a proverb,
which all wise men intend to put in practice, in their common
affairs.   The same economical view  may be  applied to the
care of the insane.   It costs comparatively little to cure them;
but  the cost of supporting them through a  life of disease  is
immense.*

   Add  to  this  the difference  between the suffering  and  the
anguish of friends, the harrowing  anxiety and  the ceaseless

  *The average time required for recovery of all the patients who were restored,
was in the Worcester Hospital, five months and three days and in the Mc Lean
Asylum, five  months and two days. These include the old as well as the new
cases.  If all these patients had been placed under proper care early, within one
or two months of the attack, the average residence, or period necessary for cure,
would have been less.
  The average length of insane life of persons incurably deranged is—
                                    Males.            Females.
If attacked at 20 years of age,           21.31 years,         28.66 years.
30
40
50
60
70
20.64
17.65
13.93
11.91
 9.15
26.33
21.53
17.67
12.51
 8.87
  As a matter of mere economy, the difference is very largely in favor of curing
the insane. 
29
care on account of their relatives when  insane, and  the full
enjoyment and  sympathy, the love and encouragement which
these  give when in health, and  there  is no  measure to the
motives that demand that the  lunatic shall be allowed to
enjoy the earliest and the best opportunities of being restored.


 THE  INSANE MUST BE  ATTENDED TO BY THEIR FRIENDS OR
                          OTHERS.
   Whatever may be  the cause of one's  mental derangement,
he cannot heal himself,—nor can he take the proper measures
for this purpose.  He is and  must be, in the hands of others,
his family, his friends, his townsmen, or the public authorities,
for means of relief.   Then they alone are responsible for his
cure.   And if he  is not put in  the  way of it, the fault is
their's, not his.

   It may have been an unwise question to be asked in olden
 time, whether it were the fault of a man who could not see,
 or of his parents, that he was  blind ; but if, when the means
 of curing mental disorder shall be provided and freely offered
 to all, any one shall become insane and remain permanently
 so, without enjoying these opportunities of relief, no one need
 ask, whether  he or his friends were the sinners, in that he is
 enduring and will  endure insanity for  life.


 EVERY INSANE PERSON SHOULD BE SENT AT ONCE TO A HOSPITAL.

    It is then a reasonable expectation, that  a cultivated, pros-
 perous and generous community like this, will see that every
 one who may hereafter be bereft of his reason, shall enjoy the
 means of restoration, in this Hospital, when it shall be ready
 for  occupancy, and that the  coming  years  and generations
  in this region shall present no more cases of insanity that shall
  have become old and incurable, because  the friends or the
  public authorities neglected to send them here to be restored.
    If however,  the disease  is one  of the small  minority that
  cannot be healed by human art, or if the lunatic shall have 
30
been neglected  until the hour of healing is past, and if then
his disorder rage, and he be violent or dangerous to himself or
others, or even if he be excitable and  troublesome,  then the
obligation will  still remain to place him  where he  may be
soothed and calmed, guided and restrained.
   By these  means, the sane and healthy community will have
discharged  its duty toward those whose minds are enfeebled
or  unsound, and the painful consequences of these  terrible
maladies of the brain will be reduced to their lowest degree.


SOME CAUSES OF INSANITY MAY BE ASCERTAINED AND PREVENTED.

   It is thus seen that much may be expected of this Hospital
in restoring diseased minds  to  health, but  this is not all.   If
this Institution stop here—if its officers do nothing  more than
remove evils that  may have been created, and only heal such
as are sent  to them; if they teach no lesson of warning and
the  people  receive no instruction from them,  if none of the
causes of insanity be searched  out and the world be  put on
its guard  against  none of the dangerous places  and  pit-falls
into which their brethren may have fallen, and  the errors that
may have overcome the weak and  susceptible among them,  if
the causes of these disorders be still allowed to prevail and
overpower men's brains with undiminished energy, and if in-
sanity be reproduced from year to year and one set of patients
be healed and restored to their friends, only to make room for
another set  who shall have fallen  under the same destructive
influences,—if these are  to be the successive  events  of the
coming years and the coming ages, then this Hospital will not
have fulfilled  its whole mission  or the  people  will  not have
learned and  practiced their whole lesson.
   It is not  to  be denied,  that many  cases of insanity are  as
yet  traceable  to no assignable sources.  Some are  probably
due  to  many causes—a little waste  of  life  here—a little
misapplication of force there—some error in self-management
—some excess—some neglect—some undue indulgence—some
external  injury—all these put together may break down one's 
31
mental health as  a complication of misfortunes and indiscre-
tions break down  one's estate, and  insanity is the consequence
in the one case as  failure of commercial position is in the other.
It is  sometimes difficult to discriminate  between  the  causes
and the consequences of mental disturbance, not unfrequently
certain eccentricities or peculiarities of conduct are suddenly
manifested and supposed  to be the causes of the malady,
whereas they may be the consequences of the disorder of the
functions of the  brain,—merely a part  of  the  phenomena of
the disease itself.   Yet,  notwithstanding these difficult and
unfathomable  cases, many can unquestionably be traced  to
their origin,  and their causes pointed out and the world  be
 put on  their guard against them.  Some, perhaps many of
 these causes are  within the control of man; they can and will
 be prevented, if  the world avail themselves of  the warning.
   Something has been already done in this work,  but there is
 no reason to  suppose,  that this philosophy has  reached  its
 uttermost bound, or that man's wisdom can search no farther
 and  find no more causes of mental disorder secretly working
 in the heart of society or openly rioting among mankind.
    It is a part  of the work of this and of all similar institu-
  tions, which are entrusted with the management of these ter-
  rible maladies, to search more and deeper into  the field where
  they are found,  to endeavor to find  the hidden springs whence
  they flow, to see where  they are, how they operate and what
  hold they have  upon the people, and then, from time  to time,
  to lift the voice of warning  and show the world, how they
  may escape some of the dangers that beset their mental con-
  stitution.
    Dives prayed that Lazarus might go  up  from  the dead
  and warn his brethren of the dangers which had  ensnared
  and destroyed  him;  but no such messenger was  allowed,
  because they already had Moses and  the Prophets to teach
  them.   This boon is not denied to you.  You have not only the
  teachings of the wise and faithful men of science, who  have
  examined and  will continue to examine the diseases of the
  mind and  their causes; but  your brethren have arisen  and 
32
will continue to arise from their mental death to point out to
you the way in which they were misled and warn you to save
yourselves from the customs and habits, the errors and indul-
gences which proved fatal to their intellectual  and spiritual
health.
  If then these teachers faithfully study and preach, and if
you and your children and your children's children will  hear
and obey, you and they, from time to time, may close some of
the fomitains and stay the progress of the desolating evil more
and more from generation  to generation,  insanity may be
gradually diminished, and in the course of ages, as man shall
become more and more  perfect in  his obedience to God and
in his faithfulness  to  the conditions of his being on earth,
this class  of maladies may be perhaps rarely or never known
among men.

       SOCIAL DUTY OF THE PEOPLE TO THE  HOSPITAL.

  There is  one  more point, in  connection  with this new
Institution, which is worthy of consideration.
  The Commonwealth creates the Hospital.  The Government
will supply its wants and appoint successive boards of trustees
to watch over it, and suitable officers and assistants to manage
it,  and  look after the patients who may be  entrusted to it,
and all the interests that may belong to it.

  Beside these,  there are  other duties that will rest upon you.
There are important influences within your control that may
materially affect its comfort and its usefulness, that may strew
its  path with flowers or with thorns, may smooth its  onward
passage or cover its road with stumbling-blocks.  To you, the
people  of  Northampton, of Hampshire and Berkshire, of
Hampden and  Franklin, its social interests are entrusted.
It is placed in  your midst  and  mainly for  your  benefit.
You and  your  children  will first and  principally enjoy its
merciful influences.  It is not unreasonable then for the State,
after having created and established it with her treasure, to
hope that it will, in  return, be cherished  and sustained  by 
33
your  affectionate confidence,  your  generous sympathy  and
abiding encouragement.

  Most of the diseased inmates  will be your friends or from
among you,  and you will be expected to  visit  them  or be
separated from  them, as their  good may require.  But the
rooms and the  halls of this Institution, like  all  other cham-
bers of sickness, cannot  be freely opened  to the mere gaze
of curiosity.
  The patients  are  sometimes excitable and  may be violent,
and  therefore require restraint.  They may suffer from an
excessive sensibility and  shrink from the sight of strangers.
They may have  the  common irritability in respect to  their
friends and their homes and be  disturbed or distressed by the
sight of any person  or mention of any thing connected  with
them, and therefore need, that  none of these, not  even their
dearest relatives visit or even be suggested to them.  If the
intercourse with friends and all  social influences are not con-
trolled  and  all  that is unfavorable is not  suspended,  the
administration of medicine, and the remedial measures con-
nected with  the Hospital treatment will be unavailing, and
often fail of their intended effect.
  The physician here, as in  ordinary diseases, must be the sole
judge of the  degree and the  kind of restraint or discipline that
is best for the  patient's  health.  He alone is to determine,
how much intercourse with  friends, how much of the associa-
tions of home and how much correspondence they can bear.

  The movements  of the Hospital are  therefore not to be
controlled by external influences, nor even by the  generous
and  tender affections of anxious relatives or  friends, nor yet
can they be open to  public gaze  as a common exhibition.
  But all is to be managed  by the government within, for the
sole purpose of  healing the diseases of your friends, neighbors
and  others who may be  suffering from mental  derangement
and  placed there to enjoy  the  beneficial effects of Hospital
treatment.
                    5 
34
  Leaving then the  managers of this  Institution  to arrange
and order its  life and conduct, in the minutest  detail, as the
patient's good may demand, it is yours to enjoy its advantages,
to profit by its work.   It  is yours to nurture its good name,
to gather for it friends,  to resist and disarm calumny even in
its very bud, to feel  assured and to give assurance, that all is
right in its internal  administration, although you may not see
it with your own eyes at all times.
  One  of  the great elements  of the peaceful and happy
prosperity of the Hospital at Worcester has been the strong
hold it has had from the beginning, on the people of that city
and  county and  the  generous sympathy  and unmeasured
confidence they have, on all occasions, given to it.


  You of this  town and these counties can and you will do
much for the prosperity and the comfort of this new Institu-
tion.  You can cheer, support and strengthen it, you can pour
the oil of joy on its machinery and give the  power of confi-
dence to its operations, and,  we doubt not,  you will do  so,
and then this  Hospital will ever have reason to rejoice, that
it is placed in the midst of an enlightened  and a generous
community. 
35
  Apter the address by Dr. Jarvis, Charles Delano, from the citi-
zens'  Committee of Arrangements,  announced to the audience that
as they were shortly to proceed to the site of the  Hospital, where the
ceremonies would  be in other hands, the Committee  had thought it
might not  be uninteresting to listen to a brief specification of such
tokens of the present  generation,  as  the  Committee, through the
courtesy of the Hospital Commissioners, had  been permitted to de-
posit  under the corner stone of that edifice.  That in availing them-
selves of that permission, they had secured several printed  pamphlets
and documents commemorative of past and current  events, among
which were the following:—

  Eighth Annual  Report of the  Trustees of the  Smith Charities.
  The Northampton Courier of July ], 1856.
  Hampshire Gazette, January 15 and July 1, 1856;  Sept. 14, 1796;
May 24, 1797; April "25, 1798;  June 29, 1803.
  Annual  Report of School Committee of Northampton, for  year
ending  March 1, 1856.
  Annual  Report of the Selectmen of Northampton, for the  year
ending Feb.  1, 1856.
  Dr. Allen's Second Century Address at Northampton.
  The Mount Holyoke  Hand Book and Tourist's Guide for North-
ampton and vicinity, by John Eden.
  Printed  placards,  notes and papers used  in perfecting the arrange-
ments for the celebration of the day, including a full list of the names
of the Committee of  Arrangements.

  In  addition to these documents, Mr.  Delano said that, acting upon
the pleasing,  and as they trusted,  not  altogether illusory or fanciful
idea,  that the life even of so  humble and unpretending a member of
the great body politic as our own well-beloved Northampton  is des-
tined, in the persons of  those who come after us,  to be immortal, and
that future  generations will dwell with the fondness  and  affection of
children upon every  memento of their fathers, the Committee  have 
3(.
felt prompted by  the  opportunity now open to them,  to  transmit,
under their own  hand, a communication,  addressed directly to their
descendants of another age.   And he here produced  the manuscript
about to be inclosed in a sealed envelope, superscribed " for poster-
ity."   Mr. D. said he had only time to read  the commencement and
conclusion of this  communication, and  to state  briefly the outline of
its intermediate contents, and then proceeded to read, as follows:—

  " The citizens of Northampton, assembled  on this Fourth day of
July,  in the year one thousand eight  hundred  and fifty-six, on the
occasion of the laying of  the corner  stone  of the third Lunatic
Hospital  of Massachusetts;  to their children's children who  in after
ages shall  break the seal of  this memorial, send greeting:—
  " Foreseeing  how soon the time must come when  all  personal
traces of the present generation will  have  faded from the recollection
of men ; and  not  presuming  that the  parts we have borne  in the
maintenance and advancement of this our  cherished municipal  inher-
itance, will be commemorated by any more public chronicle, we have
sought a  recess here  within  the walls of this  newly rising  edifice
wherein to deposit this humble record of ourselves.
  " Northampton still stands where two centuries since her founders
planted her,  still retaining those primitive  and  simple  forms  of
municipal  government which our fathers used  before  us—and  which
are the purest type of New England popular Sovereignty.
   " Our population  at this hour of writing  embraces six thousand
four hundred  and  fifty-five souls,  over one thousand of whom  are on
the list of voters, and entitled to the  full exercise of the  rights of
suffrage.
   " The  highest  executive  authority belonging to the town govern-
ment is now, as  in the beginning,  lodged in the Board of " Selectmen,"
and the making and  un-making of these officers at the annual town
elections  illustrates the jealous watchfulness of our freemen over the
conduct of their public servants.
   " The  Board of Selectmen  for the  present year is composed  as
 follows :—Azariah Clapp, Chairman,  Justin Thayer, Samuel L. Par-
sons, Luke Lyman,  Charles Strong."

     #       *       ■>•      *      V       :K       if       ;, 
37
  [Then follows a narrative of the names and denomination of the
different religious societies in town, the clergy settled and unsettled,
professional  men and  prominent citizens of Northampton who still
survive, whether in  active life or in  retirement.   The  rail roads in
town, how long in operation,  the market value of  the stock of  each.
The names  of the  principal manufacturing establishments in  town,
by whom principally owned  or conducted, and the amount of capital
employed.   The names of the first Board of Trustees recently com-
missioned for  the  third  State Lunatic  Hospital  at  Northampton.
A reference to  the origin and period of operation  of the  Smith
Charities, names of the Board of Trustees with a statement of the
amount of  the  total accumulated  funds.  A printed  list of all the
officers and members  of  the Executive, Legislative  and  Judicial
departments of  the government of the Commonwealth for the current
year, County officers,  Banks  and  Bank officers, Agricultural  Socie-
ties, Insurance  Companies and their officers, &c.   The name of the
person  believed to  be the oldest surviving male inhabitant of North-
ampton, also the oldest female inhabitant, with a brief personal notice
of  each.  Also allusion to the individual  believed  to be the youngest
inhabitant at the time of preparing this memorial and something of
his  antecedents.  After a variety of other statistics  more or less  in
detail  the document thus concludes :]—

   " And  now having thus  indicated from what slender beginnings
you, our posterity, are to work out that rare destiny which we  doubt
not the future  has  in store for you, what wait we  for but to  breathe
those  tender aspirations in your behalf, which like  good gifts none
know  so  well how to bestow as  parents upon  their children.   Our
heart's desire and  prayer then is, that all the treasures of health,
happiness, and prosperity, which, for two  centuries  of municipal
existence have  been vouchsafed to this  heritage  and home of your
fathers may belong to you and yours unto the latest generation.
   " May the greatness and glory of our common country, which  to-day
completes eighty years of independent sovereignty, be diminished  by
no untoward cause,  but more and  more be advanced until she  stands
before the nations of the earth the first in civilization,  the last and
least in the exercise of coercive power.  And our Beloved Massa-
chusetts !  as it has  been  her wont from infancy to the present time
to employ herself as she now  and here employs herself  to-day, so in
all  time  to come may she continue to rear upon  her  bosom edifices 
3S
dedicated  to  Religion,  Learning and  Charity,  trusting to works
like  these  and to the justice of  history for the vindication of her
fame.  Farewell."
  In  addition to the above, the  Commissioners placed  under the
corner stone the following documents:—
  Boston  Post.
  Boston  Daily Journal.
  Christian Register.
  Boston  Daily Bee.
  Salem Register.
  Boston  Daily Times.
  Gloucester Telegraph.
  Dr. Jarvis' Report on Insanity and Idiocy in Massachusetts.
  Copy of Plans and  Specifications of the Northampton Hospital.
  Building Commissioners' first Report.
  Report of Special Committee of Legislature appointed to inquire
into  the expediency of continuing the building, 1856.
  Copy of Springfield Republican.
  Newburyport Herald.
  New York Express.
  Christian Watchman and Reflector.
  Report  of Committee  on Charitable  Institutions  to  the Legisla-
ture, 1856.
  On a silver plate deposited within the box, is the following inscrip-
tion :—
  The  Corner Stone of  an  Edifice for the  Third  State Lunatic
Hospital;  Established under Act of the Legislature of Massachusetts;
Passed  May  21st, 1855;  Laid  by the  Most Worshipful  Winslow
Lewis, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge, on  the fourth of July,
1856,  the  80th  anniversary of the Declaration  of  American  Inde-
pendence.  Henry J. Gardner, Governor of the Commonwealth.  Com-
missioners, Luther V. Bell, Henry W. Benchley, Samuel S. Standley.

  After the exercises at  the church were  concluded,  a procession,
composed  of  Military and  Fire  Companies, Masonic  Lodges and
citizens, was formed.  When it  had reached the Hospital grounds,
the  ceremonies  were opened with prayer by Rev. Wm. A. Stearns,
President  of Amherst College, and the  Corner  Stone  laid by the
Masonic Grand  Lodge of Massachusetts. 
39
                committee of arrangements.

  W. F. Arnold, Osmyn Baker, C. W. Braman, J. H. Butler, Henry
Childs, William R. Clapp,  Merritt Clark,  William Clark, Lucius
Clark,  Christopher Clarke,  B. E. Cook,  William W. Cutler,  Isaac
Damon, Jr.,  David S. Damon, Addison  Daniels, Edward Daniels,
Samuel  Day,  Charles Delano,  Cornelius Delano,  John Deming,
James Dunlap, Oscar Edwards, J. H. Fowle, M. M. French, Henry
S. Gere, C. K. Hawks, H. Halsted, Winthrop Hillyer, O. A. Hillman,
H. I. Hodges,  John  Hubbard, Harvey Kirkland, Daniel Kingsley,
J. S. Lathrop,  Caleb Loud,  Ahira Lyman,  J.  H. Lyman,  Luke
Lyman, William R. Marsh,  Thomas  Musgrave,  Lyman Metcalf,
John G. Musgrave, Samuel  L. Parsons, I. S. Parsons, Spencer Par-
sons, A. P. Peck, Charles S. Pratt, Charles Smith, Milo J. Smith,
Charles Strong, Henry Strong, 2d, Justin Thayer, Daniel Thompson,
James Thompson, James R. Trumbull, J. D. Wells, Charles White,
Morris E. White,  L. I. Washburn,  Roland Weller,  A. S. Wood,
George F. Wright.
                                 Joseph  I. West,  Chairman.
  Samuel A. Fiske, Secretary. 
 
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