To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania: 
The undersigned, citizens of Pennsylvania, who are, or have been, 
actively engaged in the care of the Insane, respectfully represent: 
That there now exists a most lamentable deficiency of accommoda- 
tions for this unfortunate class, in nearly every section of the Common- 
wealth, and they ask of your honorable bodies, that hospitals enough for 
the cure and treatment of all the insane in Pennsylvania, he prepared at 
the earliest possible time. 
Of the wisdom, humanity, and real economy of such provision there 
can hardly be a question. The facts proving this proposition have often 
been detailed, and are readily accessible to your honorable bodies. 
The course proposed will relieve the Commonwealth of the reproach 
of having insane men and women confined in Almshouses, Jails, Peniten- 
tiaries, or what is worse, often than either, put out of observation, ne- 
glected and inhumanly treated at their own homes, or in detached build- 
ings near them. For all these, we ask of the public authorities, prompt 
and enlightened relief, which we believe can be given only by the provision 
of just as many properly organized hospitals, and located in different parts 
of the State, as may be necessary to accomplish the object. 
Among the insane, now demanding the earnest attention of the 
Legislature, are those, who have become so, after the commission of 
crime, or who, for any extraordinary cause, shall have been deemed by 
the Courts, unfit for admission to an ordinary hospital for the insane, and 
are now confined in the Penitentiaries and Jails of the Commonwealth. 
For all these, we deem it the duty of the State to make provision by the 
erection of a hospital for their especial care aud treatment, either with a 
distinct organization, and in a different locality, or in connection with the 
grounds of one or more of the State Penitentiaries, and under the same gov- 
ernment as those institutions. 
Except for those last named, the State Hospitals offer the proper 
accommodations, but with all of these institutions crowded with patients, 
no more can with propriety be received; and the transfer of patients 
from the Hospitals to the Alms Houses to make room for those now in 
the latter, offers no remedy for existing difficulties. Besides in every 
section of the State there are large numbers of excellent citizens, but with very moderate means, whose only hope of receiving treatment at all, and 
not becoming paupers is to avail themselves of the wise and humane pro- 
vision made by the State, enabling them to secure admission to its Hos- 
pitals at the very low rate charged in them for the care of this class.— 
No action of the Legislature is productive of greater or more widely ex- 
tended good than this. It enables the people to maintain an honorable 
independence, keeps them from becoming paupers, and gives them the 
best chance for restoration when laboring under this grievous affliction. 
In conclusion, your petitioners, as the result of an extended and va- 
ried experience among all classes of the insane, and supported as they 
are by nearly every one, who is regarded as high authority on the sub- 
ject, or has had similar opportunities for observation, do most earnestly 
protest against the inauguration of any system looking to a provision for 
insane criminals in any one of the existing State Hospitals, or upon any 
part of the grounds of these institutions, as impolitic, unnecessary, and 
detrimental to the best interests of the insane. 
THOS. S. KIRKBRIDE, M. D. 
J. H. WORTHINGTON, M. D. 
ISAAC RAY, M. D. 
JOHN CURWEN, M. D. 
JOSEPH A. REED, M. D. 
S. S. SCHULTZ, M. D. 
Feb. 19, 1874.