STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM AT UTICA.

During the past year some inclosed verandahs have been added, by way of extension, to the female wards of the first and second class, thereby securing a more sunny sitting-room for the inmates. The value of sunshine is only next to that of fresh air in the treatment of diseases of the nervous system, and the popularity of these extensions as places of habitual resort shows the instinctive want which they satisfy.

Much progress has also been made in the new department of pathology and micro-photography, and the institution will soon be prepared to supply, at cost, duplicate copies of the preparations in its collection. The number of post-mortems made last year was twenty-four, a larger aggregate than is probably represented by any other institution in this country. This fact cannot but tell advantageously upon the knowledge of the causation of insanity, and in proportion as these examinations are tabulated will they enable us to reconcile differences of opinion touching a disease around which much superstition still lingers.

If it can be shown that uniform lesions of either the brain or spinal cord accompany certain diseases whose locality is now sufficiently indicated by physical symptoms, or if, in the present difficulty of localizing the efficient point of departure of some of those obscure nervous diseases, the remoteness of whose effects baffles all efforts to trace them consecutively to their proper sources, it can be shown that these pathological riddles may be explained by one general key which solves them all, then the treatment of nervous diseases will be simplified to such a degree as to enable the scientific physician to make a direct instead of an inferential diagnosis, and to address his remedies to those transitional states which are the precursors to serious organic changes. It is too often the case now that the first recognizable symptoms of nervous disease are also the conclusive proofs of an accomplished degeneration

of tissue which medical skill can only hinder, but not permanently arrest. The best test of the value of these pathological studies, therefore, is the light which it can throw upon those physical conditions immediately preceding organic changes. And in order to secure results that may be formulated as laws, time and repeated affirmations must reduce these observations to conclusive proofs of an uniformity of lesion transcending mere similarity, and accepting nothing short of identity. Precipitancy in such a field is fatal to precision.

WILLARD ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE.

Since our last report this institution has been rapidly developing itself upon the plan contemplated by its board of managers, and calculated to afford accommodations which may be almost indefinitely increased. The main building, already completed, furnishes accommodations for 250 patients of each sex, and it is here that the more excitable class are collected. One mile from the main asylum is the former State Agricultural College building, called Branch No. 1, where are now gathered about 200 female patients of a quiet character. An assistant physician resides here exercising all necessary supervision of the inmates. The experience of more than a year's occupancy of this Branch has satisfied the managers of the safety and efficiency of this arrangement.

In order to balance the above system so as to apply it to male patients in a similar mental state, and capable of doing some farm-work, a group of detached buildings, located near the main asylum, and designated Branch No. 2, has been constructed within the past year, which will accommodate 200; the whole number thus provided for now reaches 900. Encouraged by the success of Branch No. 1, and the promise of similar results from Branch No. 2, the managers would desire to erect still another building, to be known as Branch 3, where "aged, quiet and inoffensive women" could be cared

for. The Board would express their approbation of the general management of the institution, and of the success which has thus far attended its operations.

In its last report the Board fully explained the aims and objects of this institution as an asylum for the chronic insane, and the work it was doing in emptying the poor-houses of that class of inmates. The rapid filling of its wards, and the call for more buildings, vindicate the wisdom of making suitable provision for such persons. The opinion expressed in that report, that such provision should be continued in the manner therein indicated, so as to include all the chronic insane, is now reaffirmed.

HUDSON RIVER STATE HOSPITAL.

This institution has made no progress in building since our last report, owing to the failure of a sufficient appropriation from the last Legislature. We think this measure was an unfortunate one in an economic sense. At the termination of last year's labors, the mechanics employed in the construction, not wishing to remain idle during the winter, volunteered to work, on the credit of an anticipated appropriation, in getting out stone, making window-frames and doors, preparing floortimbers and floorings, and generally having everything ready to proceed with in the spring as soon as the season for building had arrived. By these means the State actually gained much time by having everything prepared and ready to be put together during the long days of summer, and thus securing the completion of another wing early in the succeeding autumn. This would have occurred but for the failure of a sufficient appropriation. The amount voted, $150,000, simply paid for materials collected and work done during the winter, and left nothing with which to proceed anew in the spring. In consequence of which the work has been suspended in the presence of the materials accumulated, and a whole year has

been lost, while the applications for admission within its walls are constantly increasing, and its wards are already overcrowded.

There is no economy, in the end, in building by patches. And while the system of annual appropriations is a political necessity, it might still be arranged so as not to defeat the very purposes of economy which it contemplates. Much useful work in preparing materials can be done in winter; but if an appropriation is intended only to cover the summer work that follows it, necessarily that work will be less complete in the end (some time being always required to prepare the way for building) than if a sum were appropriated sufficient to carry the work through the year without interruption or renewal of contracts. Whatever difference of opinion may have existed as to the plan of building and the average cost per patient of this institution, it is now too late to raise that question. Good economy on the part of the State dictated that the buildings should be properly finished as soon as practicable. We accordingly trust that the present Legislature will repair the omission of its predecessor by voting a suitable appropriation to this institution.

BUFFALO STATE ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE.

This institution, created to meet the wants of the insane in the western portions of the State, was organized on the 23d day of April, 1870, by an act of the Legislature, supplemental to the act of March 23d, 1869, authorizing the Governor to appoint "five commissioners to select a suitable site in Western New York, in the Eighth Judicial District, on which to erect an asylum for the insane."

Being in so early a part of its construction, much relating to it must be considered as merely prospective. Yet it is possible to review its plans and to conjecture from the basis on which they rest, what are the evident conclusions toward which they

tend, both in a professional and scientific, as well as a financial and economic way.

The site of the asylum has been in all respects judiciously selected, both in obedience to the intent of the Legislature, as well as to the special needs of such an institution. It is near the centre of that population numerically which it was designed to accommodate-it is easily accessible from all quarters of Western New York—the land on which it is to be built was the gift of the city of Buffalo, and from its general configuration requires little or no alteration of its surface to meet either sanitary or architectural requirements; and, lastly, the city of Buffalo has bound itself to furnish a perpetual supply of water, free of cost, to the institution. It is seldom, indeed, that similar advantages are offered to a public institution at its inception, and it is not strange therefore that, with the concurrence of so many fortunate unities to surround it at its start, the commissioners should have selected the spot which they did. The land thus given (amounting to 203 acres) cost the city of Buffalo sixty thousand dollars, and the supply of water guaranteed by it will be worth not less than five thousand dollars annually.

The grounds were inclosed last year by a substantial picket fence, seven feet high, and one mile and three-quarters in length on the east, north and west sides, and three thousand and forty feet of close board fence, six feet high, were constructed on the south or front line.

The President of the Board of Managers has communicated, through the secretary, the following interesting facts relating to the existing condition of this asylum, accompanied by exhibits of expenditures, which we subjoin :

The walls of the administration building and male wards "A" and "B," with three connecting corridors, are now up ten (10) feet high on the first story, and the kitchen, with its connecting corridor to male ward "B," are nearly up to the required height. The large