Chapter II: Part 2

(1.) In their report the inspectors refer with natural interest to the opening of the State Lunatic Asylum, which is expected to be completed as early as January 1851. For want of it, “instances have occurred in which the sheriff has been the medium of a message from the judge who pronounced the sentence, to the chief officer of the prison, informing him that the prisoner was insane, but that no other mode of providing for the case existed.”

The subject of pardons occupies a prominent place in their report. It appears that but a fraction over six per cent. of the pardoned have been recommitted; and the percentage of pardons in relation to number, sex and color, cannot be so well set forth in any other way as by transferring the table to our pages.

_Table showing the whole number of pardons granted from the establishment of the prison in 1829 to 9th July, 1848._

+-------+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------+--------+
| | _Whole number in confinement._ | _No. of pardons._ | |
| | | | |
| +-----------------+---------------+-------+--------------+--------------+ Annual |
| | Whites. | Colored. | | Whites. | Col’d. |average |
| | | |Total, | | | per |
| +-----------------+---------------+ both +----+----+----+----+----+----+centage.|
| YEAR. | M. |Fem.|Total.| M. |Fem.|Tot.|colors.| M. |Fem.|Tot.| M. |Fem.|Tot.| |
+-------+-----+----+------+-----+----+----+-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+--------+
| 1831 | 75 | | 75 | 25 | 4 | 29 | 104 | 1 | | 1 | | | | |
| 1832 | 90 | | 90 | 27 | 4 | 31 | 121 | 4 | | 4 | | | | |
| 1833 | 129 | | 129 | 41 | 4 | 45 | 174 | 2 | | 2 | | | | |
| 1834 | 189 | | 189 | 81 | 2 | 83 | 272 | 8 | | 8 | 1 | | 1 | |
| 1835 | 261 | 8 | 269 | 155 | 11 |166 | 435 | 10 | | 10 | 4 | | 4 | 2.38 |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 1836 | 278 | 11 | 289 | 179 | 19 |198 | 487 | 2 | 1 | 3 | | | | |
| 1837 | 320 | 8 | 328 | 199 | 19 |218 | 546 | 4 | 1 | 5 | | | | |
| 1838 | 333 | 11 | 344 | 199 | 22 |221 | 565 | 10 | | 10 | | | | |
| 1839 | 241 | 6 | 247 | 150 | 16 |166 | 413 | 2 | | 2 | | | | 1.26 |
|to Jan.| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 15th.| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 1839 | 335 | 9 | 344 | 214 | 30 |244 | 588 | 9 | | 9 | 1 | | 1 | |
| 1840 | 331 | 8 | 339 | 203 | 31 |234 | 573 | 19 | | 19 | | | | |
| 1841 | 293 | 6 | 299 | 171 | 32 |203 | 502 | 11 | 1 | 12 | 1 | | 1 | |
| 1842 | 298 | 5 | 303 | 153 | 21 |174 | 477 | 20 | | 20 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| 1843 | 319 | 6 | 325 | 146 | 16 |162 | 487 | 15 | | 15 | | | | |
| 1844 | 332 | 12 | 344 | 136 | 17 |153 | 497 | 39 | | 39 | 4 | 3 | 7 | |
| 1845 | 230 | 10 | 240 | 97 | 11 |108 | 348 | 23 | 1 | 24 | 2 | | 2 | 5.37 |
|to Jan.| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 21.| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 1845 | 305 | 15 | 320 | 113 | 16 |129 | 449 | 5 | | 5 | | | | |
| 1846 | 321 | 14 | 335 | 110 | 16 |126 | 461 | 24 | 1 | 25 | | | | |
| 1847 | 297 | 9 | 306 | 113 | 13 |126 | 432 | 20 | | 20 | 5 | | 5 | |
| 1848 | 245 | 8 | 253 | 97 | 12 |103 | 356 | 6 | 1 | 7 | | | | 4.08 |
|to July| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 9th.| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
+-------+-----+----+------+-----+----+----+-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+--------+

During the year 1848, there were received 121 convicts, viz., 88 whites (two females), and 33 colored (three females), and 128 were discharged. Of these, 83 served out their time; 13 were pardoned; 11 discharged by order of law; 15 died from disease, and one was a suicide. The whole number of convicts in confinement during the year was 415, viz., 299 white and 116 colored. Of the 16 deaths, 10 were whites and 6 colored.

(2.) The warden’s report shows that of the 121 convicts received, 32 were foreigners, and 56 were natives of Pennsylvania. Ninety-one were under middle age; 96 were of intemperate habits; 76 could read and write; 60 were unmarried. Only 14 were bound and served their time out; 13 were bound and broke their indentures; and 96 were never bound.

Some curious facts appear in the various summaries which these details embrace. For example, of the 2,421 prisoners received into the institution from its opening in October 1829, 619 could neither read nor write; 2,020 were addicted to the use of intoxicating drinks; 460, or more than one-sixth, were foreigners; and of these last, Ireland supplied 199 and Germany 112. Seventeen hundred and twenty-nine were first convictions; 1,451 were never married; and 18 had been married and separated; 1,631 were whites (48 females) and 790 colored (86 females); 467 broke their indentures, and 1,569 were never bound. Of the 2,421 crimes, 2,000 were against property.

(3.) Next in order is the physician’s report, in which special reference is made to the inordinate length of sentences, when the nature of the discipline is duly considered. Dr. Given thinks the coloured prisoners as a class, suffer a double burden, inasmuch as their sentences are longer and the enervating influence of imprisonment is more severely felt by them,--and he furnishes the following items on this subject.

Whole number of white prisoners, 1631
Whole number of colored prisoners, 790
Average length of sentences of white prisoners, 2 y., 8 ms., 2 days.
Average length of sentences of colored prisoners, 3 y., 3 ms., 14 days.
Whole number of pardons of white prisoners, 253
Whole number of pardons of colored prisoners, 25
Whole number of deaths of white prisoners, 73
Whole number of deaths of colored prisoners, 141

The Doctor is disposed to vindicate the exercise of the pardoning power, even to a still greater extent than heretofore, unless the need of its exercise is taken away by a proper adjustment of the penal code to the penal discipline of the State. We are not prepared to say how far it would be safe to entrust the executive with power to remedy the errors or supply the defects of the Legislature, but if it is given, its extent should be clearly defined, and its exercise closely watched. We do not make this remark with any reference to the past. It is suggested by the idea, advanced in the report before us, that the pardoning power must needs be freely exercised, to compensate for the undue severity of the sentences. It is easy to see where such a doctrine would lead if followed out. We do not doubt the correctness of the statement, that the sentences at present prescribed by our laws, are quite too long and too indiscriminately inflicted, if we take into consideration the nature and efficacy of the discipline under which they are to be worked out; but in our haste to remedy the evil, we need to be cautious, lest we incur another and even a greater, because a more general and radical one. We hope this distinct call of attention to the subject, will awaken our legislators to early and efficient action. Where crying injustice is now done under color of law, a double wrong is inflicted on society. The agent and the instrument, become alike odious.

Dr. Given seconds the movement of the inspectors towards some relief from the commitment of insane convicts. He speaks of it not as a thing happening now and then, but as “A PRACTICE to send thither as criminals, persons notoriously insane or idiotic.” He also suggests the importance of some more suitable provision than now exists, for those who may become insane during their imprisonment.

Of the 15 deaths by disease, eleven were more or less diseased on admission. The mortality for 1847 and 1848, gives a mean of 4 per cent., which is the usual average. In respect to insanity, Dr. Given’s researches show, that of the 121 commitments during the year, 30 have had insane relatives;--10 cousins, 10 uncles or aunts, 5 parents, 4 mothers or sisters, and 1 grandparents.

Ten cases of insanity are reported, 5 whites and 5 blacks, average age, 25. Four were in imperfect health when admitted; one has an insane uncle, and two have an insane brother; 5 are stated as cases of dementia, and 5 as cases of monomania.

(4.) The moral instructor’s report informs us, that 288 sermons have been preached in the prison, which is an average of 48 to each corridor, and nearly one service for every Sabbath of the year. The whole number of visits recorded as having been paid by this officer to the convicts, in the course of the year, is 3,385.

II. The condition of the Western Penitentiary, is exceedingly gratifying. The inspectors allude briefly to the animadversions which have been made upon the Pennsylvania system; but they express their confidence, that the happy results which have attended its administration in that institution, will excite in the public mind the same confidence in the advantages of that system over all others, which long experience and personal observation has excited in theirs.

The number of convicts received during the year 1848, (all males,) was discharged in the same time, 52. Of 1,286 prisoners received from the opening of the prison, July 1826, only 22 have been white females; and only 215 colored convicts, of whom 37 were females. Of the 115 in confinement January 1, 1849, 88 were addicted to intemperance; 44 were natives of Pennsylvania, and of the 55 received during the year, 32 were unmarried. In respect to occupation, 42 of the 115 were laborers, 15 boatmen, 6 blacksmiths, 5 tailors. Of the 55 received during the year, 38 were under middle age.

The physician’s report shows, that among 167 prisoners in confinement during the year, only 4 deaths have occurred. Two of the four were thoroughly diseased when admitted, a third was of a consumptive family and died of consumption, and the fourth was sixty-one years old, of intemperate habits and died of apoplexy. A complete table is presented by the physician, showing the color, sex, duration of imprisonment, and state of health on reception and discharge of each prisoner, released by expiration of sentence or by pardon, from which it appears, that, _with one exception_, they were all received and discharged in good health. Among these there were eleven, one or both of whose parents died of consumption, two who were intemperate, and one very intemperate, and their average term of imprisonment was eighteen months. Six were in better health when discharged than when admitted, and one, who was partially insane when admitted, was discharged in good health.

As a striking illustration of the healthfulness of the institution, the physician states that between sixty and seventy different convicts have been employed during the year in the shoe department, and forty-eight or fifty on a daily average; “of this number _only four have failed in consequence of indisposition, to perform their full task of work. Throughout the year every other than the four referred to have performed their regularly allotted task._” We are not surprised that the medical officer thinks it proper to italicise a record of so remarkable a measure of health.

From the moral instructor’s report, we extract a single, but very sensible paragraph.

“It is not unfrequently the case that subjects which have been
presented in the ministrations of the Sabbath, are called up by the
prisoners themselves during the _daily visitation_ in their cells,
and thus the opportunity is furnished of impressing upon their
minds, when alone, that _heavenly truth_ which may ultimately bring
them to repentance and to God. In this feature of the _separate
system_, one of its principal excellencies consists. The prisoner,
by himself, separated from all vicious influences, is far better
prepared to receive and retain wholesome instruction than when
surrounded by men of a moral cast like his own. If the reformation
of convicts be accomplished at all, it must be done, as a general
rule, by those moral influences which are made to reach him, _when_
and _where_ intercourse with the vicious is cut off. In this
situation he will listen, reflect and reform.”

III. The New Jersey Penitentiary, at Trenton, received 108 convicts during the year just past; and had 176 in confinement December 31, 1848, which is 23 more than at the close of 1847. Of the 85 discharged during the year, 71 had completed their sentences, twelve were pardoned, (two on the day before their sentence expired,) and two died. Of 176 in confinement at the date of the report, 99 were received in 1848, and 38 in 1847. Eighty-six were for crimes against property, 142 for a first offence, 127 were under middle age and 42 were foreigners. In respect to color, 123 were whites, (114 males and 9 females,) and 53 were colored, (one a female.) Sixty-six had no trade or occupation. The available means of the prison, at the close of the year, were upwards of six thousand dollars.

The physician’s report states, that “but _one_ death occurred during the year and that a suicide. From diseases contracted within the prison, (where there are under discipline 260 persons,) do not average one a year.” The physician says, that “all experience has proved steam to be the best carrier of heat, and by far the most certain and economical.”--p. 43.

The report of the Rev. Mr. Starr, (the moral instructor,) is quite a valuable and intelligent document. We cannot refrain from copying a single paragraph, touching the advantages of separation as an element of prison discipline, especially in its relations to moral and religious instruction.

“The chances of amendment under the separate system, duly
sustained, must be incalculably greater than where companies of
men are congregated in their workshops. The plan is severe; but,
to use a paradoxical phrase, it is a _mild severity_. The less
abandoned are shut out from association with the hardened, who
may have spent years in familiarity with crime. Each man has his
books and his thoughts and his conscience for companions. His
keepers, his physician when in sickness, his moral instructor, the
superintendent of his daily labor, he soon learns all are _his
friends_. A great deal is in their power, through the pleasant
look, the friendly salutation, and the kind interest manifested
in those little alleviations which in no degree interfere with
the strictest and most wholesome discipline. The prisoner’s
self-respect will thus be encouraged and cultivated, as he sees
that he is not by all the world regarded in the light of a hopeless
outcast. He may be inspired with the noble ambition of regaining
his character, and leading in future a reputable life. Such like
benefits can be extended with four-fold advantage in the separate
plan of imprisonment, while its solitude is relieved by the kind
offices of a sympathizing friendship.”

IV. The inspectors of the Massachusetts State prison at Charlestown, make a very favorable report of the health of body and mind of the convicts under their care. “The favorite system of congregate labor and lenient discipline, established in our prison,” they say, “has fully answered the high expectations of its most zealous advocates. Every year brings with it new proofs of its practicability, and of its great superiority over any and every other that differs from it.”

None will dissent, we presume, from the remark of the inspectors, that “it should be remembered by all those who are intrusted with the high prerogative of administering punishment, that the convict in the prison is sentenced by the law to expiate his crime by confinement and hard labor, and that every degree of punishment beyond what is needful for the due execution of this sentence, and the attainment of the best ends to be answered by it, is excessive, is beyond the sentence and intention of the law, and is without law or justice.”

The number of convicts received during the year ending September 30, 1848, was 122; number discharged during the year 129; remaining, 281. Of those discharged, 94 were by expiration and 27 by remission of sentence, 2 were removed to the lunatic asylum, 2 escaped, and 3 died. Of the 281 in prison, 22 are negroes, and 8 mulattoes, 203 are below middle age, and 228 are for crimes against property! Seventy-one are foreigners, of whom 30 are from Ireland. Of the employments, 72 are stone-cutters, 20 blacksmiths, 69 cabinet-makers and upholsterers, 21 brush makers, 9 “solitary prison-sweepers.”

The report of the warden concerning the twenty-seven who were (during the year) pardoned, is very encouraging. “All but one are doing well--are obtaining a livelihood by honest labor, and are becoming respected citizens in the communities where they reside.” Forty volumes have been purchased during the year for the use of the prisoners, among which we notice the Autobiography of Goethe, Bushnell’s Christian Nurture, and Vestiges of Natural History.

The warden is of opinion that the lives of the three prisoners who died was prolonged by their imprisonment, as they had been long diseased!

The prison suffered a serious loss by fire during the year, and from this and other causes the revenue of the institution is less than the expenses by $4,242 79.

The physician’s report is a modest and sensible document, evidently prepared with care. The sickness of the prison would be represented by an average of four patients a day in the hospital. Four hundred and twenty-five days of light labor were prescribed during the year, and about the same number of changes of labor. The general average of convicts during the year was 287; and Dr. Bemis thinks his report shows “a fair average degree of health fully equal to that of the community at large, and vastly superior to what would have been enjoyed by the same class of men in pursuit of their usual modes of living when at large.”--p. 21.

The three deaths were of consumption.

The following remarkable statement from the physician’s report, we cannot refrain from transferring to our pages.

“The average period of imprisonment of all those sentenced for
life to the State Prison, since 1818, (amounting to 125,) has not
exceeded seven years. Nineteen of this number have died in the
Prison after an average confinement of seven years.”

The supply of a substantial suit of clothes and a sum of money, not exceeding five dollars, to each discharged convict, occasioned an expenditure last year of more than five hundred dollars. In consequence of the frequent instances in which the money thus furnished is spent indiscreetly, it has lately been proposed in the Legislature to entrust the dispensation of this bounty to the “Boston Society for the relief of discharged convicts,” and a bill was introduced for that purpose. We have not learned its fate. From a cotemporary print we learn that, in consequence of the great increase in the number of convicts at the Charlestown prison, it has become necessary to use other accommodations than those which belong to the prison proper.[4] The chief cause assigned for this increase is intemperance.

_State Prison of Michigan._--It is said that 128 convicts are confined in the Michigan State Prison, and that the annual deficiency in the receipts ranges from $5,000 to $10,000. The Governor thinks that this sum is not more than a reasonable profit upon convict-labor, considering what is made in other State Penitentiaries within his knowledge!

NOTICES.

No. 1.--_Institutions for the Insane._

We have upon our table, the reports for the year 1848-9 of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, (the eighth,) of the Massachusetts State Lunatic Asylum, (the sixteenth,) of the New York State Lunatic Asylum, (the sixth,) of the Physician and Superintendent of the M’Lean Asylum for the Insane at Somerville, Massachusetts, (the thirty-first,) and of the New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum, (the second.) The first and fourth are on private, and the other three on a public foundation.

1. We suppose the first in our list combines as many of the substantial advantages for the treatment of patients of this class, as any institution in the world, and we are happy to know, that the prominent principles which have been recognized in its structure and economy, have been adopted in asylums of the latest date. The hospital has been quite full during the whole year, and yet the health of the patients has been remarkably good. The present arrangements are fitted to accommodate 200 patients, and provision will soon be made for receiving 20 more. It is certainly desirable to extend the benefits of such an institution to as large a number as can divide without diminishing the aggregate of good, but we quite concur with Dr. Kirkbride in the opinion, that a larger number than 220 could not be well received in one building, nor receive due attention from one medical officer--“a daily visit to all the wards, and a daily supervision of all the departments by its official head, being exceedingly desirable in every institution for the insane.” Seven of the seventeen deaths during the year, “occurred within a fortnight after the patients’ admission,” and only one had been more than a year in the asylum.

Of 1391 patients admitted to this hospital, 725 were under middle age, (35 years,) and 666 over. Of 773 male patients, the leading occupations were as follows:--farmers, 115; merchants, 66; laborers, 62; clerks, 50; carpenters, 30; shoemakers, 22; physicians, 19; seamen and watermen, 19; teachers, 17; tailors, 15; students, 15; NO OCCUPATION, 108.

Of 618 females, 66 were seamstresses or mantua-makers, and 64 domestics; store-keepers and attendants in stores, 12, and teachers, 9. Of single females, not pursuing a regular employment, 29 were daughters of farmers, and 29 daughters of merchants. Of the married, 57 were wives of farmers; 39 of laborers; 35 of merchants; 23 of clerks. Of the 618, 244 were single, 286 married and 88 widows. And of the 1391, 773 were natives of Pennsylvania; 91 of New Jersey; 197 from other of the United States; 340 from foreign parts, of whom 189 were from Ireland!

The most productive cause of insanity, as shown by the returns, is intemperance, 84; the next is mental anxiety, 69; grief for loss of friends, &c., 69; then comes the loss of property, 67; religious excitement, 56; domestic difficulties, 45, and _unascertained_, 563! In 907 of the cases, insanity appeared before middle age, leaving 384 only developed after that period.

The plan of detached cottages for a particular class of patients, continues to be an approved feature of the arrangements; and among the valuable improvements of the last year is the erection of a museum and reading-room on an eligible site. The building is 46 feet by 24, with a piazza, and the interior is furnished with interesting and valuable cabinets in natural science, as well as with newspapers, maps, periodicals, pamphlets, &c. On the interesting topics of society, instruction, and moral treatment, and the arrangements for heating and ventilation, much valuable information is furnished. The annual receipts and expenses are balanced with the sum of _twenty-six cents_, and the cost of each patient per week, including every thing, is $3 88. The amount expended on _free patients_ during the year is $7,666 88. This is unalloyed charity.

2. The State Hospital at Worcester, (Massachusetts,) under the care of Dr. Chandler, was overflowing with patients, though fifteen new rooms were added during the year. The average number for the year was 404, and the number of dormitories 360 only. The number of foreigners in the hospital at the close of 1842 was 34, at the close of 1847 it was 121, and at the close of 1848 it was 150!

Dr. Chandler is of opinion, that it would not be judicious to enlarge the present hospital, but he would rather erect a new one, and separate the sexes. He thinks three small hospitals, in different sections of the State, would have some advantage over a large one.

The whole number of patients admitted from January 1833, to November 30, 1848, is 3084, of whom 1433 were discharged cured, 416 improved, and 272 died. Of the patients admitted last year, 154 were under middle age, and 255 above, showing a very different result from that which we have stated above at the Pennsylvania hospital. Of the whole number received at Worcester, the cause of insanity in 322 cases is supposed to have been intemperance; in 266 domestic affliction; in 233 religious views, and in 161 self-abuse. Hereditary tendencies to insanity were traced in 691 cases. Fifteen hundred and sixty-one were single, one thousand two hundred and thirty-two married, one hundred and ninety-nine widows, and eighty-six widowers. Dr. C. thinks it very clear that the sympathies and motives to action, which the domestic relations supply, are all but indispensable to keep the whole system of mind and body in a healthful state. If we understand the report of the trustees, the cost to the State of each patient is $2 33⅓.

3. The report of the New York State Lunatic Asylum established at Utica, was made to the Legislature, February 1, 1849. During the six years since it was opened, it has had an annual average of 335 patients. The whole number under care during 1848, was 877, of whom 495 were removed at the end of the year. Judges of county courts have authority to send to the asylum any person who becomes insane and whose estate is insufficient for the support of himself and family; and the county is chargeable with the expenses of his restoration, if it is effected within the space of two years. Six hundred and twenty-nine of this class have been received into the institution since it was opened, and have thus been partakers of the most seasonable and appropriate charity which the public can bestow. These have been among the most hopeful subjects of hospital treatment, and would have suffered most for want of it.

The hospital is lighted by 280 burners from gas manufactured on the premises. The expense of work, fixtures, &c., was $5,346 48,--and this mode of lighting, is regarded not only as safer and more secure and pleasant, but as cheaper than the former mode. The price of board and hospital care, to patients who are chargeable to towns or counties, is $2 per week. Pay patients are charged from $2 50 to $4 per week, according to the accommodations they receive. The receipts of the year fully meet the current expenses.

Of 382 discharges during the year, 189 were men and 193 were women; 174 were cured, (viz., 87 men and 87 women,) and 84 were improved. There were 86 deaths. Some salutary cautions are given respecting the removal of distant patients to the hospital, especially in sudden and acute cases of insanity, and where they are in a weak or diseased state, and exposed to much suffering and fatigue on the journey. The opinion of a judicious physician should be taken before the attempt to remove them is made. Other and equally important cautions are given against delaying to send such as are clearly deranged, merely because they are monomaniacs, or not violent, nor very excitable. “Those cases of insanity that are most improperly and most frequently neglected and kept at home until they are incurable, are unattended by much excitement; those that come on very gradually, unperceived for a long time, excepting by the most intimate acquaintances,” (p. 20.)

Of the whole number, (2,014,) 1017 were men, and 997 women; 1213 became insane before middle life, and 801 after that period. Of the 1017 men, 437 were farmers and 133 laborers, 57 merchants and 51 scholars; and of the 997 women, 853 were employed at house-work, or were without any special trade or employment; 45 were school girls; 30 tailoresses; 24 instructresses; 21 milliners; 16 mantua-makers; 7 factory-girls; and 1 music-teacher. As to their civil condition, 957 were single; 937 married; 83 widows; and 39 widowers. 1417 were natives of New York, and 300 were from foreign lands.

Among the causes of insanity, are religious anxiety 178, loss of property 86, sickness and death of kindred 74, excessive study 51, intemperance 67, Millerism 36, disappointed in love 53, abuse by husband 28, blows on the head 24, fright 24, excessive labor 33, anxiety about absent friends, 18. Among the amusements of the patients, debates, tableaux, singing and dancing, and theatrical performances. Of the whole number, (2014,) 251, (108 men and 143 women,) were disposed to suicide. This variety of insanity is by no means the most incurable. On the contrary, some of the most permanent and complete recoveries, are from this form of disease. From a register kept by Dr. Bingham for four years at this hospital, of all the suicides occurring in the State of New York, and noticed in the public prints, it appears that 74 cases occurred in 1845, 64 in 1846, 106 in 1847, and 88 in 1848.

In relation to hereditary insanity, the report shows that of the 2014 patients received at the institution, 637 are known to have insane relatives, and 273 are known to have had insane parents, or nearly 1 in 7. Dr. Brigham expresses the opinion that _all other causes combined have not so much influence in producing insanity, as the transmission of the disease from parents to their offspring_, p. 36. In other words, that the exciting causes would be inadequate to produce insanity, but for the inherent constitutional tendency to it. Dr. B also declares his belief, that there is more insanity in this country than in any other, especially in the northern and eastern States, and _that it is fearfully on the increase_, p. 38.

Some valuable suggestions respecting the prevalent causes of insanity and the means of obviating them, are thrown out, and are entitled to the earnest and studious regard of parents and teachers, as well as of professional circles.

4. In the _M’Lean Asylum_ there were received during the year 1848, 153 patients, (71 males and 72 females.) Dismissed, 155, (87 males, 68 females,) of whom 82 were restored, (55 males, and 37 females.) There were 23 deaths during the year. The total number of patients received from 1837, is 1696. The average of the first six years of this term was 115, and the average of the second six years, was 166. Of the whole number, 884 were discharged as cured, and 184 died. The report enters at much length into a history of the construction of the buildings, and of the recent alterations, amounting almost to a reconstruction of the largest and most modern building on the male side.

In conjunction with these alterations, a new heating and ventilating apparatus has been introduced, and as we know the very great solicitude that is felt in respect to this point by those who are commissioned to devise the plan and oversee the construction of such edifices, we extract so much of the report as relates to it.

“Every room has a hot air and a foul air flue opening in it, the
entrance being protected by an ornamental grate, and the galleries
have five or six flues of each kind opening in them, in order that
the diffusion may be general. The flues are twelve by twelve, and
twelve by nine inches in size.

“The pure supplies of air are received into a large reservoir
or space in the basement between the walls forming the sides of
the galleries above, and in which both kinds of flues are built.
This main air channel has an area of at least fifteen feet, and
terminates externally in a low tower, fully exposed to the passing
air.

“The heater is a vertical boiler on the tubular plan, about
eight feet in height and thirty inches in diameter. The fuel
(anthracite) is placed within the boiler, and that is so placed
within the reservoir before named, that only a small part of it,
required to receive the fuel, is left outside.

“On each side of the reservoir of air, is a construction consisting
of six longitudinal chambers one above the other, the whole length
of it. The lower three, separated from the upper three by a brick
arch and from each other by partitions of wood, are the ventilating
channels receiving at intervals the flues from above and finally
terminating beneath the exhausting shaft, to be described.

“The upper range consists of the three channels for hot air.
Both of these ranges are so arranged that a channel answers to a
story above, and thus each story of the house has its heating and
ventilation entirely independent of any other.

“Each hot air channel has a pair of four inch cast iron water pipes
connected with spigot joints and iron cement; one end of each comes
off the boiler near the top, and the other or return end, enters
the boiler on the other side, near its bottom. The hot and cold
ends of each pair of pipes are on opposite sides, in order that the
average heat at any place where the air is delivered above may be
the same. The three pair of pipes receive and return their water,
through tubes reduced to two inches diameter, as recommended by
Mr. Hood, the highest authority on this class of subjects, and at
the same level. The degree of curvature essential in this form
of connection, was expected to make a difference in the velocity
of the circulating fluid, and consequent temperature at which
the water would be found in the different ranges. Practically no
material difference is remarked. The radiating pipes cross at the
bottom of the cold air reservoir. The air flows in to impinge upon
them through arched spaces left in the front of the channels,
looking towards the reservoir. Every flue for hot or foul air is
commanded by a slide readily approached below.

“The heated air is always admitted near the ceiling to obviate any
contamination at its point of delivery. The foul air is drawn off
near the wash-board, any impurities there deposited being drawn
down, but not into the room. The diffusion of the air, where an
adequate exhaustive power is provided, is also much favored by
being thus turned in its course, and the lower stratum is not
uncomfortably cool to the feet,--a common objection to the usual
method of receiving and withdrawing the supplies.

“The foul air channels into which the flues from each story open,
do not come together, until just as they pass under the foot of
the ventilating shaft or chimney, which through the agency of a
cast iron pipe, a foot in diameter in the middle of the shaft,
running up fifty feet and receiving the smoke from the furnaces,
constitutes the moving power. This shaft is built of brick in a
useless angle where the two buildings approached each other, and
has an internal diameter, it being a circle, of about six feet at
its basis a few feet below the cellar floor, and terminates in one
of the original chimney stacks at the corner of the foundation
of the dome, height of about seventy-five feet, and with about
one half its size at bottom. A deviation of a few feet from the
perpendicular was inevitable at about two-thirds its length.
It is carefully plastered or _pargetted_ within. As its upper
opening was commanded by the spherical dome, endangering the
regurgitation of wind at certain times, it was surmounted with a
form of chimney-cap, figured in Mr. Tredgold’s works some forty
years since, and being essentially that recently introduced into
considerable use in this vicinity.

“As a cure for smoky chimneys, this cap has considerable
efficiency, but is regarded as of very trifling moment as for as
suction or exhaustion from below is required. For its power is too
feeble at all times, for such an amount of ventilation as an insane
hospital requires, and depends wholly on the fluctuation currents
of external air. If the upper range of bricks had been laid with a
bevel upwards, and a plain plate of metal placed on four short
legs a few inches above, it would have answered equally well and at
a tenth of the cost. The rarefaction produced by the heat radiated
from the central iron smoke pipe occasions a partial vacuum,
instantly filled from the rooms behind.

“The whole length of cast iron hot water pipe is about 600 feet,
and with the portion of the heater within the main air cell or
reservoir, and the smaller wrought iron tubes connecting the
extremes of each of the six pipes with the upper and lower ends
of the boiler, constitutes a radiating surface of over 700 square
feet. The effective fire surface of the boiler is probably about 30
superficial feet, and about 60,000 cubic feet of space above in the
three corridors, and the rooms opening upon them, are to be heated.

“The amount of anthracite consumed in the twenty-four hours of
our coldest weather, is not far from 400 lbs.; the water in the
extremities of the pipes receiving it from the heater, rarely
exceeds 180° F. and falls off about 20° at its point of re-entering.

“All these expressions, however, are quite indefinite without
taking into consideration the extent of change required in the
air. It is obvious that by closing the damper which commands the
ventilating shaft, the relations of temperature of the air, and
of the pipes would at once sympathize. With the active power of
the shaft, it is certain that any possible amount of ventilation
may be attained. Indeed, it is probable that the present shaft is
equal to the demands of the remainder of the male wing in addition.
The escape of the steam pump is injected into the centre of the
ventilating space, giving us, for some hours daily, the aid of this
recently adopted and exceedingly efficient means of ventilation.

“While a sufficient time has not yet elapsed to stamp our apparatus
with the seal of experience, the only test of such appliances in
the mechanical arts, yet we are authorized to declare that, as
far it has been tried, it promises all that could be desired in
supplying a full, certain, and manageable amount of air, in its
highest hygienic conditions.

“The cost of getting up a complete system of hot-water warming
and exhaustive ventilation in a country where few examples or
approximate specimens are to be found--in a climate which nullifies
all European experience--where all parties, suggesters and
mechanics, are obliged to acquire a certain experience as they go
along, must be much greater than when this subject shall be well
understood and generally adopted, as it eventually cannot fail to
be. Independent of making the flues and ventilating chimney, items
which in new undertakings would naturally come under the head of
construction account, the expense of our undertaking will fall
considerably below a thousand dollars, and we are satisfied that
with the experience acquired in this single trial, it could be gone
over again at a very considerable reduction of cost.”

We have left ourselves but a finger’s breadth of room for a notice of the report of the _N. Jersey State Lunatic Asylum_ at Trenton, rendered December 1848. It is accompanied by a view and ground plan of the buildings, which were opened for patients on the 15th of May last, under the superintendence of Dr. H. A. Buttolph. They are designed for the accommodation of 200 patients, and in their general structure and arrangement accord with those of the Pennsylvania Hospital already noticed. The asylum occupies a most eligible site, about two miles north-west of the public buildings, surrounded by a choice farm of 111 acres, with an unfailing supply of fine soft water, and a beautiful grove in the rear, thus affording abundant room for hospital purposes, and embracing every variety of scenery and spacious pleasure grounds for the use of the patients. The various fixtures for warming, ventilating and lighting, as well as the arrangements for cooking, washing, bathing, &c., are after the most improved models, and are described with interesting and intelligible minuteness in the report, an examination of which we would recommend to all who are seeking information on the subject. The number received during the year was 86, of whom 83 remained in the asylum at the date of the report. A large proportion of the number received were chronic cases, which are generally very numerous at the opening of such institutions. Of the 86, 27 were under middle age; 52 were single and 30 married. Of their occupations, 22 of the men were farmers, and 16 of the women were house-keepers. An hereditary tendency to insanity was traced in 18 of the 86 cases, or about as 1 to 5.

SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL FACTS.

======================================================================
| Admitted | Discharged | Remaining | |
| during | or died | at date | |
| the | during | of | Cured. | Deaths.
| year. | the year. | report. | |
---------------+----------+------------+-----------+--------+---------
Pennsylvania, | 215 | 203 | 200 | 120 | 17
New Jersey,[5] | 86 | 3 | 83 | 3 | 0
New York, | 405 | 382 | 495 | 174 | 86[6]
Massachusetts, | 261 | 246 | 409 | 136 | 30
======================================================================

VIRGINIA.--The Eastern Insane Asylum of Virginia is established at Williamsburg, and the Western at Staunton. At the former were received in 1848, 34 patients, 15 males and 19 females. The number under care, October 1, 1848, was 165. Aggregate of inmates during the year 198; discharged 6 males and 10 females; deaths 17, (8 males and 9 females.) Spacious additions to the buildings are now in progress, a portion of which will be appropriated to colored patients. The receipts of the year were $41,350 64, and the expenditures $29,716 89.

At the latter institution were received during the year ending October 1, 1848, 70, (39 males and 31 females,) making an aggregate of 277 under care during the year. There were discharged in the same time 50 patients, of whom 40 were recovered, (21 males and 19 females,) and 7 more or less improved; 2 were unimproved, 1 eloped, and 22 died.

Among the causes assigned for insanity, we notice hard study is given in the case of 11 males and 1 female, intemperance 16 males, and domestic affliction 6 males and 18 females. Seven thousand dollars have been expended lately in new buildings.

No. 2.--_The precise present character of transportation explained, with suggestions by Ignotus._

We observe in our English papers a brief notice of a pamphlet of fifty pages, published in London a short time since, advocating some important modifications of the transportation system. As we regard the system itself too near extinction to render any modifications of it particularly valuable or interesting, we notice the publication only for the sake of what the author says about _convict-separation_. We take, by piece-meal, the whole extract of the English reviewer, venturing a brief comment on some passages.

“This sort of confinement (separation) has, of late years, been
extravagantly commended by some, and as loudly reprobated by
others. The truth seems to lie between the two extreme opinions.
(A position which truth has long been supposed to occupy.) We are
led, by our own observations, to value it but little as an _active
agency_ for reforming criminals, but to allow it a high place as
auxiliary, in general, to that which is reformatory in the highest
degree, _Christian instruction in the hands of Christian men_.”

We are not aware of any system of prison discipline that possesses or pretends to possess an “active agency for reforming criminals,” independent of Christian instruction. We imprison men to punish them, and we think the “_active agency_” of punishment is quickened by separation. And hence we hold, that apart from reformatory influences, separation during imprisonment is preferable to association, considered merely as a punishment. When, however, we introduce the agency which is “reformatory in the highest degree,” (to wit, “_Christian instruction in the hands of Christian men_,”) the comparative fitness of the two modes of imprisonment to receive and employ it, is at once revealed, and, as “Ignotus” says, the separation of the convicts is then seen to occupy a high place as an auxiliary to its influence.

“The separate system is free, certainly, from many things which
impede the reformation of criminals; from the perpetual distrust
and perpetual punishment which are necessary to enforce _silence_
in _association_, and from the grosser vices of the older style of
prisons, mutual contamination and hardening in villany. It allows
a return to feelings of self-respect. It removes all possibility
of combination for evil purposes, and prevents the exertion of
that fascinating influence which the practised villain exerts so
destructively over the novice in crime. It protects the penitent,
in his first desires and efforts to return to God. It is something,
also, as regards others less hopeful, even for a time, effectually
to break the chain of their evil habits, and to compel the mind,
however reluctant, to turn inwards and reflect, until the dormant
powers of conscience be aroused. Beyond this it does not seem to go
in producing amendment; and we are persuaded, that if the benign
and saving influence of our divine religion were withdrawn from a
prison on the separate plan, not a single inmate would ever leave
its walls a whit more reformed than from any other.”

We think the friends of separation could scarcely ask for a more favorable exhibit of its advantages than _Ignotus_ gives. It certainly places that system far in advance of any and all others as the basis of reformation. And while we readily admit that it is but a basis, and that higher and better influences must be relied on to make it efficient as a means of reformation, we cannot agree with the author, that convicts from a separate prison are not likely to leave its walls a whit more reformed than convicts from Newgate or from Blackwell’s Island. To keep bad men apart must always, under all circumstances, be more conducive to their reform, than to suffer their intercommunication. If “the benign and saving influence of our divine religion,” were withdrawn from the city of London or New York, it would become a pandemonium; but no one would say, that if each man, woman and child, were separated from every other man, woman and child by an impassable gulf, the degree of corruption would not be essentially reduced. Close association breeds the plague of cities--comparative separation keeps the country clean and wholesome. The analogies of the moral and natural world are very obvious in this respect.

“If it be thought, from what has been written of late years on the
subject, that a greater efficacy should be attributed to separate
confinement, let it be borne in mind, that cotemporaneously with
its adoption in any prison, there has been very much greater
care taken than ever used to be in the selection of officers to
superintend the discipline, and to convey moral and religious
instruction to the prisoners. Wherever Christianity has been
brought to bear upon criminals, in its real power and blessedness,
good has been accomplished under the most untoward circumstances;
sinners have been brought to Christ and salvation; and the mass,
if not converted unto God, have been marvellously civilized. This
was manifested by the success which followed the self-denying
labors of Mrs. Fry, and other pious persons in Newgate; of that
eminent man Dr. Browning, in so many convict ships; of Sir Edward
Parry, who labored like a missionary amongst his _assigned_ convict
servants, at Port Stephen’s; of Colonel Demaresq, also acting in
the same spirit, under the same circumstances, at St. Helier’s and
St. Aubyn’s; and of Sarah Martin, in the gaol of Yarmouth, of whose
unwearied and blessed labors the Government Inspector, Captain
Williams, makes such honorable mention in several reports. The
superior mind of a person invested with authority, may exercise
a most salutary influence upon any class of human beings, but
Christian doctrine, and Christian character _consistent enough to
stand the scrutiny of the bad_, accomplish greater things; and the
lower any are sunken, the more commanding is this influence upon
their minds.”

We presume the prevailing sentiments of this passage, will meet a hearty response from all our readers. We are in no danger of attributing too much efficacy to the power of the truth over the mind when it has access to it. It may be questioned, however, whether its influence is not greatly hindered, and sometimes completely obstructed, by the debasing vices of convicts. We are not quite prepared to admit, that the lower the human mind sinks, the more commanding is the influence upon it of Christian doctrine and Christian character, though we would regard no case as beyond the reach of such an influence.

“The _combination_ of pious Christian zeal with good judgment and a
knowledge of human nature, in the head of any prison establishment,
we are convinced is more likely to lead to the reformation of its
inmates, than any _system_ of discipline _without it_. It has the
blessing of God, “without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy,
nothing is perfect.” But, whatever may be thought of the influence
of separate confinement, as _a means of reformation_, there should
be no doubt about its utility as a punishment, if not carried to
an extreme. It is a most severe one, certainly; but this is not
without great advantages, even in an economical point of view; for
in proportion as it is severe, the sentence may be abridged, and
its heaviest pressure is upon those who deserve it most. Criminals,
of all men, can least bear to be alone. A thoroughly bad man,
by himself, is the greatest coward, and without his accustomed
stimulants, the most wretched of beings; we have no hesitation,
therefore, in stating, that such a man would prefer even the scanty
food, the vermin and the sloth of such a place as Newgate, where
he might gamble for his supper, learn new tricks or instruct the
novice, sing, play, and quarrel by turns in the night-room, than
the very best treatment and the most abundant diet of a prison
on the new plan. The _reformatory character_ of such a gaol is,
to such persons, an object of real terror. A visiting justice of
the gaol of Reading, stated before Lord Brougham’s Committee (p.
478-9,) that full 50 per cent of the vagrant class had actually
fled out of Berkshire, lest they might be immured in so horrible
a place. It is however, an expensive plan for the treatment of
criminals; its _individuality_ and severe pressure creating a
necessity for better occupation of the mind and body, a more
liberal diet and a greater number of teachers than where prisoners
are associated.”

We regard the features of separation which Ignotus delineates in the foregoing passage, as most highly commendatory of it as a means of discipline and reform. This better occupation of the mind and body, a more liberal diet, and the greater number of teachers, which become so needful, indicate just what the desire for wholesome food does in a convalescent patient. His vices had made wholesome occupation of either mind or body irksome; and the attempt to teach him good knowledge was to annoy, if not to offend him. If separation from the haunts and fellowship of the wicked makes him long for what he once loathed, the public are “penny-wise and pound-foolish,” if they grudge the supply. It is the token of returning health and should be hailed with joy and gratitude.

No. 3.--_Statistics of Truantry and of Juvenile Vagrancy in the City of Boston._