Review of Dr. Godding's Paper 
ON 
Progress in Provision for the Insane. 
BY THE 
EDITOR OF THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INSANITY. 
[From the American Journal of Insanity, for October, 1884.] REVIEW OF DR. GODDING'S PAPER. 
Progress in Provision for the Insane for the Past Forty Years 
in America. 
The present number of this Journal contains an in- 
teresting article by Dr. Godding in his most graphic 
style. As it purports to be a history, we feel it to be 
our duty to call attention to certain statements, which, 
in a memorial record of the Association, claiming to be 
a history of progress in provision for the insane in this 
country, are, to say the least, misleading. Of course, 
our principal concern in this rejoinder, if it be such, is 
to vindicate history as well as the course of the 
Association of Medical Superintendents, and to place 
the action of the Association in its proper light. The 
more do we recognize this duty as the Doctor at the 
outset introduces his remarks by asking, " What are 
we doing in the Master's Vineyard V adding: "It is 
time to take an observation and to see what speed the 
good ship launched forty years ago, has made, and how, 
and where and whither she is drifting." Again he 
says: "The question that we are called, upon to 
answer to-day is, what is the real progress, if any, which 
has been made during the last forty years in our pro- 
vision for the insane in America in its completeness and 
in its character? It is that which I am here to discuss." 
Dr. Godding's paper is a palmary example of the 
" art of putting things." To be asked to give a history 
of the progress in provision for the insane in America 
for the last forty years, was not necessarily to be put 
upon giving an "excuse for being" of the Association 
of Medical Superintendents. The raison d'etre of that 
Association, as of any association for benevolent, 2 
economic or scientific purposes, is mutual assistance and 
information and the formulation of results of the 
general experience. 
In giving a summary of the institutions, including 
those of Canada, in existence when the Association was 
organized, he says: "Twenty five in all, of which, only 
thirteen were distinctly State hospitals, having in 1844 
a population of about fifteen hundred insane, out of 
some seventeen thousand in the country.'' 
We find from statistics of that date, (See Journal of 
Insanity, Volume I, page 80,) that there were 3,348 
patients in the institutions then existing in the country, 
and we find no evidence except the census of 1840, 
which was shown to be very defective, to justify the 
statement that there were seventeen thousand insane 
then in America. The census of 1840 to which we 
refer (Journal of Insanity, Number I, page 72,) gave 
4,333 white insane and idiots supported at public 
charge, 829 colored insane and idiots at public charge, 
and 10,192 white insane and idiotic supported at 
private charge, and 2,103 colored insane and idiots at 
private charge. If there were then seventeen thousand 
insane, which we do not believe, there were nearly five 
thousand of them in the care of hospitals. 
The Doctor gives the list of the superintendents of 
that period, and declares them all not only to have 
been "live men" but. "each one a giant." With this 
every one must agree who follows up their active and 
useful lives. But he adds this rather curious statement: 
"At that time it had not occurred to the members of 
the Association that it was necessary to have proposi- 
tions authoritatively enunciated on any subject." The 
"propositions" statedly put forth by the Association 
would seem to be a sort of beie noire to Dr. Godding, 
and he can not forbear to show this by assailing them, 3 
while at the same time he is obliged, on the whole, to 
defend their main principles, such as the duty of the 
State to provide for all the insane within its jurisdic- 
tion. He does not seem to realize that to formulate the 
results of scientific research, as far as experience has 
gone, is not to cut oft further discoveries. He gives 
the following as an illustration in regard to the 
propositions. V In the early days of a religion, men go 
to the stake for a belief so simple and firmly held that 
they write it down only in their lives; in the latter 
stages of that religious development, zealots get 
together and crystallize out their warring beliefs into 
written creeds." Yet we find that in 1851, the 
Association-those very " giants " or " zealots "-did 
formulate "propositions" which, to use the language of 
Dr. Godding, "embodied the most approved ideas in 
regard to hospital construction and arrangement, and 
so afforded a basis for most liberal plans of which the 
several States about to build hospitals wisely availed 
themselves." He doubts if " one is required to 
enunciate anything," and adds: "When I come to 
reverently lay a garland on an altar of the past I 
certainly shall not rudely attempt to overturn it, but 
I may be permitted to regret that the religion which 
reared it is extinct. There is always a danger in 
regard to propositions." 
In what sense have the propositions become obsolete 
like that "altar of a past religion" that has become 
extinct? Take those propositions upon which Dr. 
Godding says most of the hospitals built after 1851 
were planned, and which he declares "in their admirable 
arrangements are almost models to-day; " is there any- 
thing to prevent their enlargement and extension to all 
actual requirements from time to time? Indeed, is not 
this the actual history of these very hospitals? Dr- 4 
Godding lays too much stress on the limitation to 20(1 
patients; certainly no "law of Medes and Persians," 
for it was afterwards modified to 250 and again in- 
creased to 600. It never formed any obstacle to pro- 
gress. It was no law for construction of hospitals but 
a simple suggestion for the highest degree of efficiency 
in the majority of institutions required at that time. 
We object to the following statement of Dr. Godding: 
It is noticeable that the ideas of what the provision for the 
insane should be were regarded as authoritatively settled by the 
Association. Heresy was not tolerated in those days and who- 
ever meddled with the ark of hospital construction was stoned. 
It is interesting, and in the light of modern changes instructive, 
to note in the proceedings of the Association, in 1855,* how an 
erring southern brother, Dr. Galt, of Virginia, was dealt with on 
this subject. Whoever reads the "Farm of St. Anne,"f now will 
find a picture not wholly uninviting by contrast with what he may 
happen personally to remember of certain prison-like aspects in the 
midst of all the comfort and elegance of the New England 
hospitals of that day, but after the reception it met with at the 
meeting of the Association, it is certain that no "St. Anne's 
Farm " in America marked an era of progress in provision for the 
insane of that generation. 
The editor of this Journal was present at that meet- 
ing, and the questions discussed had no reference to the 
propositions of 1851 and 1853. The discussion arose 
out of a memorial by Dr. Brown, of Bloomingdale, on 
Dr. Francis Bullock, in which " he took occasion 
to animadvert upon some of the views expressed in an 
article published in the April number of the Journal 
of Insanity, 1855." 
Any one who turns to the paper of Dr. Galt, in the 
Journal of Insanity, Volume XI, and to the proceed- 
ings, Volume XII, will see first, that the editor of this 
* See Journal of Insanity, vol. xii, p. 39. 
f " The Farm of St. Anne," by John M. Galt, M. D.-Journal of Insan- 
ity, vol. xi, p. 352. 5 
Journal was quite as much the subject of criticism and 
attack for publishing the article referred to, as the 
"erring southern brother, Dr. Galt,*'its author. It is 
proper to say, there was no north or south then in the 
Association, and no erring medical brethren, as there are 
none now. Men differed in opinion then as they do now. 
History should be reasonably accurate. Our readers can 
not all readily turn to the Xllth Volume of this Jour- 
nal, and we, therefore, reproduce the whole of the 
expressions in the paper of Dr. Galt which were the 
basis of criticism. 
We here quote: Dr. Brown then read from the 
April number of the Journal of Insanity, as follows, 
from page 353: 
Even as it is, on going from some institutions, which I could 
mention, to those of New England, the latter, by the great 
contrast which they afford in this respect, appear mere prison- 
houses, notwithstanding their internal attributes of comfort and 
elegance, and a general management and systematic action in 
which they are superior to the asylums referred to, and, in fact, 
have few equals anywhere. 
Also from the page following: 
Would that the friends of the poor lunatics could be convinced 
of this deficiency; America might then have the honor of establish- 
ing at least one new principle in the government of those laboring 
under mental alienation. Up to this time what has she done in 
this respect? Absolutely nothing, must be the true answer.of 
every unprejudiced mind. Whilst, indeed, those entrusted with 
the supervision of the insane, and particularly those at the head 
of the most richly endowed asylums, shall deem the true interests 
of their afflicted charge not to consist in aught on their part but 
tinkering gas-pipes and studying architecture, in order merely to 
erect costly and at the same time most unsightly edifices- 
erections at which Mr. Ruskin would shudder-so long may we 
anticipate no advancement in the treatment of insanity, as far as 
the United States are concerned. 6 
There was nothing in the discussion about St. Anne 
or the numbers that should be provided for in hospitals. 
There was no attack upon progress or upon Dr. Galt or 
the farm of St. Anne. The paper of Dr. Galt was 
merely an account of the farm of the hospital of the 
Bicetre in Paris and that of Gheel in Belgium, not from 
personal visitation by the author, but from what he 
had read. The discussion was confined to certain 
questions of fact touching Dr. Galt's remarks about New 
England Hospitals. The men of that period were 
neither arbitrary nor intolerant, but on the contrary, were 
men of breadth of view and magnanimity, and utterly 
incapable of such a spirit as is imputed to them by Dr. 
Godding. Dr. Galt was not " stoned " nor sawn 
asunder, nor was he driven to the horns of the altar for 
refuge. Such high priests as Bell, Ray and Workman 
really defended him in the open congregation, though 
they were themselves chief among the " tinkers of gas- 
pipes and students of architecture." Dr. Ray, after 
some palliative remarks on Dr. Galt's statements declared 
that " It might have been well if the managers of the 
Journal had entered their caveat against the assertion 
that the hospitals of New England have a very 
peculiar and prison-like appearance." Dr. Kirkbride 
declared " such a wholesale slander on the gentlemen 
who managed the institutions of New England should 
not have found a place in the Journal where it 
appeared." Dr. Nichols, of the Government Asylum 
at Washington, "Did not know why the institutions of 
New England were particularly specified as presenting 
the appearance of ' mere prison-houses,' for a greater 
number of essentially the same sort of structures may 
be found out of the Eastern States, than within their 
borders; and he believed that a very general concur- 
rence of views, in regard to the proper organization 7 
and management of such establishments, happily pre- 
vailed among nearly all their medical directors." 
" He might," Dr. Nichols added, " say of the con- 
struction and management of New England institutions, 
o o' 
and their extreme opposites, wherever found, happily 
few in number- 
Look here, upon this picture, and on this; 
And what judgment 
Would step from this to this?" 
And then he referred to the characters of Drs. Ray, 
Bell, Earle, Jarvis and Kirkbride, to show that some- 
thing had been done for psychological medicine in this 
conn try in comparison with that of other countries, and 
closed by saying that "America had done much that 
should excite the gratitude of her children, something 
that should command their respect, and nothing becom- 
ing in them to contemn." 
Dr. Fisher, of North Carolina, called for the reading 
of the "offensive remarks" of Dr. Galt, and the 
sentences already quoted were read. He then said : 
That he regarded the statement made by the writer rather in the 
light of a mistaken opinion, than that of a misstatement of fact. 
He would say that the opinion cited from the Journal did not cor- 
respond with his own impressions when he visited a number of the 
institutions of New England. With due deference, however, to 
his excellent friend, Dr. Kirkbride, he would say that he thought 
him rather denunciatory of the remarks quoted. 
We are always sorry to spoil fine writing, but we 
can not think the facts set forth justify such a back- 
handed compliment to the far-sighted men whose names 
figure in that record; who, while many of us were in 
psychological swaddling clothes, were working out the 
great problems which have stretched down from them to 
us, respecting the care of the insane. We enter a caveat.. 8 
taking the advice of the veteran Ray, even though 
such fine writing is aimed at so arrogant and tyrannical 
a proceeding by the Association as formulating from 
time to time the progress of experience in propositions 
for guidance. We believe in the past and in the 
present, and while we are quite willing to be led out of 
Egypt into a land of promise by any Moses, we are not 
willing under any shower of praise to listen in silence 
even to "giants" of the present day traducing our 
ancestors. 
The Association had been in existence eleven years. 
There is no record anywhere to show that they ever 
treated matters of construction either as a "heresy" or 
a "dream." The enlargement of the plans of hospitals 
was a current fact. In 1851, when the propositions 
were announced, Utica, Worcester and a number of 
institutions had more than two hundred, and there was 
constant and steady development also on the lines of 
1851; and among the propositions of 1853, was one in 
regard to the number of physicians and other officers 
desirable in institutions containing more than two 
hundred patients. The enlargement, therefore, of plans 
of hospitals was nothing sudden, and certainly did not 
wait for 1866. 
What Dr. Galt said in his paper about St. Anne, to 
which Dr. Godding refers, was nothing new. It was 
known to members of the Association and to some of 
them by personal observation. It was simply an 
account of a farm to which the patients of the Bicetre 
were taken out of the hot city of Paris. Dr. Galt 
could, at any time, have seen St. Anne if he had 
turned his eyes upon many of the institutions of his 
own country. Indeed, one of the propositions of the 
Association which Dr. Godding alternately eulogizes 
and condemns, declared the necessity of a farm. 9 
No hospital for the insane, however limited its capacity, should 
have less than fifty acres of land, devoted to gardens and pleasure 
grounds for its patients. At least one hundred acres should be 
possessed by any State hospital, or other institution, for two 
hundred patients, to which number these propositions apply, unless 
otherwise mentioned.-[The italics are ours. Eds.] 
The Government Hospital, from which Dr. Godding 
has penned his panegyric, had more of a farm in 1855 
than that of St. Anne. Dr. Nichols in a report to the 
Secretary of the Interior, dated December 24, 1852, 
(Journal of Insanity, Volume 9,) says: 
A site for the hospital of the District of Columbia, and of the 
army and navy, comprising a farm of about one hundred and ninety 
acres of land, situated on the southeast side of the eastern branch 
of the Potomac, nearly due south from the Capitol, and about two 
miles from it in a direct line, has been selected and secured by 
absolute purchase and full payment, in the sum of twenty-seven 
thousand dollars. ***** The farm purchased is under a 
high state of cultivation, with a large number of choice, well-set 
young fruit trees upon it. 
In 1873 this farm had reached 419 acres, and with 
the out-buildings and wall represents many thousands. 
In 1874, Dr. Nichols speaks of expenditures that year 
beyond the current expenditures, of $46,712.22, "in the 
erection of a large and very superior stock and hay 
barn," and materials for hog-barracks, grazing, sheds, 
poultry houses and other improvements. 
There were then but few institutions without farms, 
and as Dr. Nichols in 1852 stated: "Nearly every one 
has a hundred acres attached to it, and several of them 
many more." And yet not content with this opening 
thrust at the early fathers of the Association, Dr. 
Godding, near the close of his paper, repeats " we may 
yet see rural pictures of lunacy that shall pleasantly re- 
call the Farm of St Anne without its recriminating con- 
trasts, and that Dr. Bemis, of Massachusetts, may at 10 
last be consoled for the cottage home that he saw in 
his mind's eye." What Dr. Bemis saw in his mind's 
eye, we shall not undertake to say, but certainly the 
writer could not mean that Dr. Rockwell's purchase of 
a timber lot thirty years ago, or the cottage at Hartford 
Retreat, is evidence of a new regime altogether. Has 
he never heard of the cottages long before built by 
Kirkbride, or of the system of Dr. Cutter at Pepperell, 
Massachusetts, or of the cottages and home-treatment of 
Dr. Russell at Winchendon, and others? 
The Journal of Insanity, Volume XI, contains 
remarks of the Hon. John G. Davis, of Indiana, in the 
House of Representatives, February 22,1855, in regard 
to the United States Government Asylum for the Army 
and Navy, an eloquent address, in which he speaks of 
the thirty-three public institutions in the twenty-three 
different States of the Union, and says: "Sixteen of 
these institutions have gone into operation within the 
last fifteen years, and all with precisely the same 
internal and external regime? He then adds: 
This uniformity, sir, did not arise from a blind imitation of 
some early example, accidental in its character in all subsequent 
enterprises of the kind, but is the natural result of mature 
experience interpreted and applied by men actuated by a sincere 
and enlightened benevolence. * * * Finding our prototypes 
in the mother country radically defective, and there being here no 
prejudices of custom to overcome, as abroad, our countrymen lost 
no time in making such modifications as experience suggested, 
and were not long in reaching the present regime, the basis of 
which is the domiciliation of the patients and the whole household 
engaged in their care, with the superintendent, to whom is con- 
fided the requisite authority, and upon whom is laid the responsi- 
bility of a humane and skillful direction of his charge. Practically, 
the simple and efficient system of executive government which 
prevails in American asylums creates a family, of which the 
physician-in-chief is the head, to whom is confided the entire 
direction of the medical and moral treatment of the patients, and 11 
of the duties of all persons engaged directly or indirectly in their 
care. 
These words could be taken as a true description 
of the American institutions of to-day. 
The Government Hospital itself was from the start 
constructed on the principles of other institutions 
existing at that time, and of the present, and in one of 
the reports of the Secretary of the Interior to Congress 
these words are used : 
The plan originally adopted, which was on a magnificent scale, 
has been adhered to and steadily pursued until we find ourselves in 
full view of its completion. 
This hospital must, therefore, be considered as one of 
Dr. Godding's "Cathedrals of Lunacy." It stands a 
representative structure on a magnificent scale, and is 
called by Dr. Nichols " Collegiate Gothic; " not one of the 
structures of the "men of '66;" nor is it the cheap 
structure which one might infer from the invitation to 
" Come to Washington and see what can be done with 
small appropriations. * * * See the provision 
which has been made there with limited means from 
the start." Let us see. In the report of 1875 of that 
institution, Dr. Nichols says that the "original hospital 
edifice and two separate out wards, erected at the same 
time were designed for 290 patients, and cost, furnished 
and fitted up, exclusive of land and outbuildings, 
$406,848, or $1,403 per patient," and he presents plans 
for its extension for 250 patients more, at an estimated 
cost of $395,000, or $1,580 per patient," and adds, " In 
submitting so low an estimate for this structure we have 
considered the advantages of our local and special 
experience in executing similar work," <fcc. In the face 
of this Dr. Godding says: 12 
Such temples of philanthropy are creditable to the hearts that 
reared them, but I think we may set it down as an established 
fact, that although religion will still require churches and chapels 
for public service, the world, unless exceptionally, has done build- 
ing cathedrals either for devotion or philanthropy; convenient 
places of worship that do not tax the parish too heavily for their 
construction will be preferred to more ostentatious fanes. 
But Dr. Godding also says: 
I certainly would not say that our hospitals for the insane have, 
as a whole, been extravagantly built. I am sure that we shall all 
agree that in one respect the men of the first era (sic) built well, 
nay, even "builded better than they knew," when they planted 
these liberal hospitals for curable cases in the midst of farms and 
grounds so extensive that they now afford ample room for the 
asylum homes (sic) for the chronic cases, which in future years will 
grow up around them. 
It "may be set down as an established fact" that the 
people of their abundance will still give to the erection 
of temples in which to worship their Creator, and 
States will still spread their philanthropic arms about 
the poor and helpless ; not the cold embrace of parsi- 
mony, but the soft and comforting embrace of plenty. 
When Macaulay's New Zealander stands on London 
Bridge, contemplating the ruins of St. Paul's, people 
will have abandoned cathedrals and churches, and taken 
refuge in cheap worshipping places. 
As already stated, one of the most extraordinary 
features of the memorial of Dr. Godding, is his fre- 
quent reference to the "propositions" for the size of 
buildings, as though they embarrassed and hampered 
the action of States in the erection of institutions of a 
suitable capacity. Secondly, and particularly in what 
he says of the Convention in Washington in 1866, he 
warrants the inference that the tendency of the Asso- 
ciation was not to care for all the insane, and that the 
proposition limiting the size of asylums was a barrier 13 
to the widest treatment. This, in the light of facts, is 
simply ridiculous. There never was a time when the 
Association did not maintain that all should be pro- 
vided for. He admits in his own article that no mem- 
ber had ever maintained otherwise. He says: 
The medical superintendents of institutions for the insane as a 
body, individually and collectively, and without a single excep- 
tion, have put themselves on record, again and again, as demand- 
ing that the State should make the best possible provision for 
every insane person within its jurisdiction, whatever the form of 
the disease, acute or chronic, curable or incurable. 
It is somewhat amusing to see the amount of rhetoric 
expended by Dr. Godding upon the rejection by the 
Association in 1866 of a proposition to make special 
provision for certain cases of chronic insane. He says: 
Dr. Butler, of Hartford, Connecticut, in an eloquent address on 
the claims of the chronic, and presumably incurable, insane, de- 
livered before the Association at the meeting in 1865, Dr. Cook, 
of Canandaigua, N. Y., in a glowing picture of the provision for 
the insane poor of the State of New York, read at the meeting in 
1866, and Dr. John B. Chapin, in an admirable resume of the whole 
subject in 1867, led the forlorn hope in an appeal for a change in 
the propositions of 1851 and 1853, a change that involved the 
enunciation of new ones in favor of distinct provision by the 
States for their chronic insane, a proposal that was almost unani- 
mously rejected by the Association. 
The remarks of Dr. Butler were wholly with refer- 
ence to Connecticut. Dr. Butler said : 
They had in Connecticut five hundred cases which ought to be 
under hospital treatment. During the past year the incurable had 
pressed upon them (Hartford Retreat), so that the question had 
arisen, " What shall we do with them ? " 
He suggested two plans: to build another institution 
for curable cases, which " He believed it impossible to 
obtain the means to enable them to do;" (the State 
did it, however.) The other- 14 
The Legislature had entertained the question and the present 
proposition was in favor of a farm for an incurable institution, 
where patients can be suitably cared for, and perform some labor 
which would partially meet the expense of their support. For 
the present he expected to have a State farm, with all the other 
appliances necessary for the care of incurable patients. lie 
believed there was not an institution in the land in which incura- 
bles did not embarrass the care of the curables.-(American 
Journal of Insanity, Vol. 22, page 69.) 
A discussion followed, participated in by Drs. Kirk- 
bride, Curwen and Reed, of Pennsylvania; MacFarland, 
of Illinois; Drs. Tyler, Walker and Choate, of Massa- 
chusetts ; Drs. Peck, Gundry and Hills, of Ohio; Dr. 
Chipley, of Kentucky; Drs. Douglass and DeWolf, of 
Canada. With the exception of Dr. Hills, they all 
dissented from the views of Dr. Butler in regard to 
establishing a hospital for incurables. (Page 69-74.) 
"The discussion was brought to a close by Dr Butler 
moving the following resolution : 
"Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to take into 
consideration the condition of the chronic and supposed incurable 
insane, and the best possible arrangement lor their custody and 
treatment, and to report at the next meeting of the Association. 
"Drs. Butler, Walker and Curwen were appointed 
such committee." 
Dr. Cook's paper read at the meeting of the Associa- 
tion in 1866, (Journal of Insanity, Volume 23, page 
45,) recited the fact that the State of New York, in 
1864, ordered an investigation into the condition of 
the insane poor in the poor-houses, etc., by the Secretary 
of the State Medical Society, Dr. Willard. He referred 
to the report made in 1856 by a committee of the 
Senate upon the same subject, and quoted from the 
message of Governor Fenton to the Legislature in 1865, 
suggesting the propriety of establishing an institution 
for incurables, viz: "an institution that should relieve 15 
the county authorities from the care of the insane, 
should be deliberately considered." The Governor 
further stated in the message that there were 1,345 
lunatics confined in poor-houses or poor-house asylums, 
nearly all of whom were incurable. Dr. Cook then adds: 
"The question being thus presented to the Legislature, 
the result was the creation of the Willard Asylum for 
the Chronic Insane, and for the better care of the insane 
poor," by an act passed April, 1865. Dr. Cook main- 
tained that the Willard Asylum was- 
Designed to supersede the system of providing for the chronic 
insane in the poor-houses. ****** When it shall be 
completed no more chronic insane will pass from the care of the 
State asylum to the county poor-houses. The law will then pro- 
vide for their continued care and treatment by sending them to 
the Willard Asylum. 
Dr. Chapin's paper on Provision for the Chronic 
Insane Poor (Journal of Insanity, Vol. 24), was read 
in 1867, a year afterwards. It is not quite plain how 
he could have helped to lead a "forlorn hope" at the 
meeting in 1866. 
At the meeting of the Association in 1866, Dr. But- 
ler being absent, Dr. Walker, on the part of the 
committee, presented a series of five resolutions provid- 
ing that the State should make provision for all the 
insane whose families could not provide for them; 
should locate their hospitals in, the center of districts; 
should "not attempt to make the labor of the insane 
pecuniarily remunerative or even as a primary object 
contributive to their support." That "no class of 
insane, except that of chronic and advanced dementia, 
should be cared for otherwise than in hospitals properly 
constructed,equipped and organized." That " demented 
persons in whose cases the disease is chronic and 
advanced, may, with propriety, be provided for in 16 
institutions other than hospitals, but always in build- 
ings constructed expressly to meet the requirements ot 
their particular condition," etc., to secure them from 
abuse and neglect, and that they should be " under the 
entire control of a competent resident physician." 
This was all the committee had to offer to the 
Association. We take the following from the proceed- 
ings : 
Dr. Chipley, of New York. I move as a substitute for the 
resolutions just read the resolutions adopted by a Convention of 
Superintendents of the Poor of the State of New York, in 1855, 
as follows: 
Resolved, That the State should make ample and suitable pro- 
vision lor all its insane. 
Resolved, That no insane person should be treated, or in any 
way taken care of, in any county poor or alms-house, or other 
receptacle provided for paupers, and in which paupers are 
maintained or supported. 
Resolved, That a proper classification is an indispensable element 
in the treatment of the insane, which can only be secured in 
establishments constructed with a special view to their treatment. 
Resolved, That insane persons considered curable, and those 
supposed incurable, should not be provided for in separate establish- 
ments. This relief should be commensurate with the demand. 
The substitute, after discussion, was adopted almost 
unanimously. (See American Journal of Insanity, 
Volume 23, pages 147-9 and 247. Senate Document 
No. 17, 1856, pages 1 and 2.) 
What the Association, therefore, did at Washington, 
in 1866, was simply to endorse some of the propositions 
of the Superintendents of the Poor of New York, enun- 
ciated by them in 1855, by substituting those proposi- 
tions for the proposition of Dr. Butler's committee. 
We must insist on the whole truth in making history 
and can not permit Dr. Godding to give them as though 
they originated with the Association of Superintendents 
in 1866. Those noble utterances belong to the Superin- 17 
tendents of the Poor of the State of New York, 
assembled in Utica in 1855, antedating the action of 
the Association eleven years. The Superintendents of 
the Poor, therefore, were the men who " went down 
from New York to Albany and found the chronic 
insane that the hospitals had cast forth to make room 
for recent curable cases, lying with others whom 
hospital care had never reached, wounded and bleeding 
by the wayside, forgotten in alms-houses, festering in 
cages, loathsome with neglect." They, too, were real 
Samaritans. They did not propose to put them in any 
cheap place, but like the Samaritan of old, would send 
them to an inn that they might fare as he had fared 
himself. 
This was in 1855, not in I860. Such derogatory 
language as Dr. Godding has used was not applicable 
to New York in 1866, if it ever had been, and we can 
not permit such perversion of history in a memorial 
service to go out to the world uncontradicted. 
In solving the great question of taking care of all 
the insane, New York was neither the laggard nor the 
contemptuous Pharisee. She had taken the lead among 
the States, both in inquiry and action. We can not, 
therefore, be silent or indifferent to such misrepresenta- 
tion or non-representation of the State of New York. 
One unfamiliar with the real history, as Dr. Godding 
seems to be, would infer from his remarks that not 
until 1866 had that great State proposed the care of all 
its insane, and that it had taken no steps in the matter 
until that time; that it had been slumbering in con- 
scions satisfaction, and was suddenly awakened out of a 
Rip Van Winkle dream by "the men of '66," whoever 
they may have been, and a pious pilgrimage arranged 
"to go down from New York to Albany," in behalf 
of that benighted State. 18 
The truth of history is that this work had already 
been done in New York before the meeting at Wash- 
ington in 1866. It was commenced in New York by 
Miss Dix. And we would here remark that it is 
extraordinary, in a memorial purporting to give the 
history of progress in the care of the insane, that this 
lady should not even be mentioned. She was the 
angel of mercy who first visited, as an "individual," 
the poor-houses and jails " and those forgotten in alms- 
houses, Ac." It was she who went to the legislature 
at Albany, before the Association had an existence, 
with a memorial in their behalf, presenting the most 
powerful appeal ever brought before a legislative body. 
It was the pathos of the facts given by her which 
touched the hearts of men and aroused the Superin- 
tendents of the Poor to action, they being the legal 
guardians of these people, and set men in action in 
behalf of the suffering insane throughout the State. 
It was not with her a spasm of philanthropy, but a 
quiet, deep determination to do and to keep doing until 
the great work was complete. Through her influence 
as a starting force, and the aid of others, the institution 
at Utica was enlarged. The discussion of the care of 
the chronic insane was never lost sight of, as abundant 
public documentary matter would reveal. (See annual 
reports of Utica Asylum.) Nor was it the Association 
of Superintendents of Asylums who proposed to make 
the relief of the insane commensurate with their 
necessities. Neither was it Dr. Godding's "men of 
'66." It was the Superintendents of the Poor of the 
sixty counties of the State of New York, in 1855, who 
led the way and enunciated the wholesome and humane 
sentiment, and then and there uttered their protest 
against further wrong. In their memorial to the legis- 
lature, they pointed out the evils of the system existing 19 
and declared that as the law of the State made " the 
duty of providing for these unfortunate persons com- 
pulsory upon your memorialists, and not optional, they 
would be wanting in their duty to their fellowmen, did 
they not present to your consideration the nature of the 
relief for which they pray," etc. They asked relief, 
therefore, for all. We cite their own words: 
The justice of the claim for aid of every insane person should 
be unquestioned. Whether in the acute stage of the disease or 
the chronic; whether mild, excitable or paroxysmal, they are 
objects of special care-, and it should be provided to the fullest 
extent for all not in a condition to reside in private families. 
* * * * How this may be accomplished, has been the desire 
of your memorialists briefly to set forth, by showing that the relief 
must be of a special nature. This implies institutions especially 
adapted in their construction and association for the purpose; 
which, by their order and quiet, may afford moral treatment, while 
intelligent medical direction should control their operation. 
In view of the urgent demand that has been presented, your 
memorialists, in conclusion, do not hesitate to recommend that 
your honorable body will at once cause the immediate erection of 
two State lunatic hospitals, so located that they may accommodate 
the largest number of insane at present unprovided for, and so 
relinquish the undersigned the pain of longer continuing a system 
fraught with injustice and inhumanity. 
The Superintendents of the Poor also unanimously 
adopted the following; resolution February 21, 1855: 
Resolved, That this convention do unanimoxisly recommend to 
the Legislature the establishment of an asylum for such insane 
persons as can not be received by the present " State Lunatic 
Asylum" but more particularly for the reception of such patients 
as have been discharged therefrom uncured. (Senate Doc. No. 17, 
1856.) 
It was this body, therefore, that issued the famous 
proposition which deserves to be written in golden 
letters on the escutcheon of every State: "That the 
State should make ample and suitable provision for all 20 
its insane not in a condition to reside in private 
families.'' It was this body that stepped forth in the 
State of New York recommending the Legislature to 
create a special institution for the reception of the 
chronic insane then in the county houses. It 
uttered no shibboleth of " attainable good " or 
"unattainable better" but proclaimed the emptying of 
the poor-houses, jails and prisons, and the erection of 
the necessary institutions for the care of all. The 
writer was present as an "individual" at the convention 
of the Superintendents of the Poor, both in Syracuse 
and in Utica, in 1855, and participated in the discus- 
sions. 
The action of the convention was at once followed 
up. Some of its members went to Albany with 
memorials and urged this duty upon the Legislature, 
out of which grew the Legislative Committee of 
the Senate, who visited the poorhouses, jails and 
prisons, made an elaborate report, and portrayed in 
pathetic appeal the sufferings and necessities of these 
people, and in this they were aided and sustained by 
other county authorities and the officers of asylums. 
A bill was introduced into the Legislature providing 
for the establishment of two State institutions, one east 
and one west of Utica. This bill failed the first year, 
but was again presented and pressed without abatement 
until at last it succeeded. This was the golden age 
which inaugurated the benevolent scheme and raised 
the universal cry for universal care. This was the 
sentiment which aroused action in the State of New 
York, and which has never ceased to animate it, and 
this was the origin of the Willard Asylum, authorized 
in 1865, an institution which was born before the 
waking up of the " men of '66" or the " dream" of Dr. 
Godding, or even the "address" of Dr. Butler in 21 
behalf of Connecticut, which Dr. Godding is inclined 
to credit to New York. 
But New York did not pause with Willard, nor did 
she change her long conceived purpose. In 1865, the 
bill for two asylums was introduced, and while con- 
sidering it, it was deemed advisable to create only 
one asylum then, and this for the chronic insane, to 
be called the Beck Asylum after the distinguished 
scholar and jurisprudent, Dr. T. Romeyn Beck, and the 
name was changed to Willard* at its final passage. 
New York went on with her noble work, not waiting 
for "propositions," or "eras," or the "men of '66;" she 
authorized Poughkeepsie Asylum in 1866, Buffalo in 
1869, and Middletown subsequently, all of which are 
general hospitals for the insane, and Binghamton Asy- 
lum for Inebriates, reorganized and reconstructed to 
follow the plan of Willard. 
In addition to this, the State Board of Charities has 
authorized no less than fifteen county asylums for the 
chronic insane, in which there are 1,316 inmates. 
It will be observed that there were in 1864 in the 
poor-houses and poor-house asylums 1,345 insane, nearly 
the same number now in the county asylums authorized 
by the State Board of Charities. 
It is certainly apparent that the system of the 
Willard Asylum did not fulfill the hopes of Governor 
Fenton to "relieve the county authorities from the care 
of the insane." On the contrary it permanently fixed a 
system in the State of New York of State and county 
care. Whether wise or unwise, it was adopted, and as 
a result we have a system partly of State and partly of 
* Dr. Willard died quite suddenly and the honor of the name was trans- 
ferred from Dr. Beck to him. He had simply, as a public official, made up this 
report from the data furnished him by physicians and Superintendents of the 
Poor in the various counties. 22 
county asylums, the latter largely dominating. But we 
have practically universal care. The last report of the 
State Board of Charities (1884, page 18), shows that 
there are now in the State 11,343 insane, distributed as 
follows: 
Males. 
Females. 
Total. 
In the State Hospitals for Acute Insane, 
. 731 
734 
1,495 
In the State Asylums for Chronic Insane, 
. 1,018 
1,134 
2,152 
In City Asylums and City Alms-houses, 
. 2,065 
2,951 
5,016 
In County Asylums and County Poor-houses,.. 
. 797 
1,072 
1,869 
In private Asylums, 
. 206, 
352 
558 
In the Asylum for Insane Criminals, 
. 135 
9 
144 
In the State Asylum for Insane Emigrants,.... 
63 
46 
109 
5,045 
6,298 
11,343 
Of the above, as shown in the report, 553 are in the 
county poor-houses. Those however, are undoubtedly 
of a class which would have been included in the 
Butler Committee "proposition" of 1866, which the 
Association, Dr. Godding says, "almost unanimously 
rejected;" namely: "No class of insane except that of 
chronic and advanced dementia shall be cared for other- 
wise than in hospitals properly constructed, equipped 
and organized." 
Dr. Godding in summing up the results of forty 
years, says: 
To-day there are probably not less than one hundred thousand 
insane within the limits of the United States. The increased 
provision will probably afford good accommodation for thirty 
thousand inmates, and at the date of the United States census in 
1880, forty thousand nine hundred and forty-two were crowded 
into these hospitals, including the insane departments of alms- 
houses, leaving the majority still to be provided for, as in 1844, 
indiscriminately huddled in alms-houses, in jails, in cages, and 
adrift in the community. Thus far only, then, have we come in 
our progress in provision, in forty years. 
Whatever may be said of other States, New York is 
not behind in this great work. If she has five millions 23 
of population, and there are one hundred thousand 
insane in the United States, in a population of fifty 
millions, she has her full share in the 11,343 insane 
which she is taking care of under "enlightened super- 
vision," and under an organized State system. Iler 
skirts are clear. With all respect to Dr. Godding as a 
historical memorialist, we can not believe that in other 
States "the majority are still unprovided for, and 
indiscriminately huddled in alms-houses, in jails, in 
cages and adrift in the community." 
It is always better to adhere to historic facts than 
to practice undiscriminating eulogy. We regret to see 
such a jumble of history in such a memorial paper, 
forces of importance laid aside or not mentioned, and 
unimportant things magnified into moving powers, the 
memorialist struggling and quibbling with a resolution 
of the Association about the numbers that ought to be 
in a hospital, as though it were a great detracting 
influence; while, as we have already said, leaving out 
the efforts of Miss Dix, who, as an "individual," gave 
her time, character, influence and means to this very 
subject, not only in the State of New York, but in 
almost every State in the Union-the woman whom the 
Secretary of the Interior of the General Government 
invited with Dr. Nichols to locate the Government 
Hospital at Washington.* 
*" Having succeeded, I also invited Miss D. L. Dix, a lady no less dis- 
tinguished for high intellectual qualities than for her benevolence, and 
whose name is inseparably associated with this particular department of 
philanthropy, to give us the benefit of her advice and experience in the 
selection of the best location for the asylum. To this proposition she kindly 
acceded, and after a very minute examination extending through a period of a 
fortnight, concurred with Dr. Nichols in recommending the farm of Mr. Thomas 
Blagdon. ***** Neither the President nor myself had 
previously visited this farm, but at the suggestion of Dr. Nichols and Miss 
Dix we examined it carefully, and came to the conclusion that it was incom- 
parably the best location. "-(Letter of the Secretary of the Interior to Congress, 
December, 1852). 24 
In regard to the stress laid by Dr. Godding upon the 
propositions of the Association in 1851 and 1853, of two 
hundred and two hundred and fifty patients to each asy- 
lum, we can only add to what we have said, that he has 
not shown that it had any influence whatever. The fact 
is, that proposition has had little or no influence before 
or since. It had nothing to do with crowding or over- 
crowding, with adequate or inadequate provision, and 
what Dr. Godding says as to his second "era" of hospi- 
tals, contradicts what he says in regard to this very 
proposition. When these propositions were uttered in 
1851, Utica, an uncompleted institution, had 450 
patients, and went steadily up to six hundred patients. 
(The original foundations laid were for buildings 
to accommodate one thousand.) The Government 
Hospital for the Insane, was projected in 1852. Dr. 
Nichols, the superintendent, says in his report for 
1875: "The original hospital-edifice was designed to 
accommodate a maximum of 350 patients." This was 
directly in the face of the proposition of 1851, and in 
a subsequent report, when speaking of enlarging the 
asylum, he asks " An appropriation of $35,956 for the 
extension of the administration building," saying it was 
originally intended for a building with 350 patients, 
and not large enough to meet the wants of the 
extension of the wards. Michigan Asylum was pro- 
jected in 1854, for 288, without any regard to that 
proposition. 
We know of no instance where a State was controlled 
in its action by this proposition. In connection with 
this point one would imagine from the statements 
of Dr. Godding that at the meeting of the Associa- 
tion in 1866, a great struggle had been made to 
get the Association to modify that proposition. 
Dr. Nichols introduced a resolution to make the 25 
number a thousand for each institution, which was after- 
wards dropped to six hundred, and passed, with little 
opposition. Among those who steadily voted against 
the proposition of Dr. Nichols to increase the number 
from 250 to 600 was Dr. Cook, who was one of the 
final six non-concurring. The " proposition " of the com- 
mittee, Drs. Butler, Walker and Brown, recommending 
separate provision for certain chronic insane, at that 
meeting, or, as Dr. Godding puts it, "in favor of distinct 
provision by the State for their chronic insane'1 was not 
passed. We have already shown what that proposition 
was. The Butler committee contemplated separate 
provision only for "chronic and advanced dementia," 
and to be cared tor in " buildings other than hospitals." 
The Association emphatically condemned the proposal 
of their committee, not because they were fundus officio, 
or were tired of formulating propositions, but because 
they would maintain a consistent witness to settled 
principles. It declared "the facilities for classification 
or ward separation, possessed by each institution, should 
equal the requirements of the different conditions of the 
several classes received by such institutions, whether 
those different conditions are mental or physical in their 
character? thus endorsing fully the broad ground laid 
down eleven years before by the Superintendents of 
the Poor of New York.* Dr. Chipley, of Kentucky, 
offered, as already stated, as a substitute, the resolutions 
of the Superintendents of the Poor of New York, pub- 
lished in 1855, which was carried. As the proposition 
of the committee was thus rejected, Dr. Godding bursts 
into anathema, as follows: "It was time that they had 
done with enunciating propositions for all time in one 
decade, that changing circumstances may require to be 
modified or repeated in the next." Suppose the Asso- 
*See Proceedings, I860, Journal, Vol. 23, page 248. 26 
ciation had enunciated that proposition? Then that 
body would have been "simply glorious," in Dr. God- 
ding's estimation. 
We can not allow Dr. Godding at this late day, in the 
light of history, to raise the issue or attempt to proclaim 
as a fact from the rostrum of a committee of the Associa- 
tion, that there ever was indifference or any dispute as to 
taking care of all the insane. The only question on 
which there was any difference either in the Association 
or out of it, was, as to whether all classes of the 
insane, in all stages of the disease, should be 
received and treated in hospitals together, or 
whether those that were supposed to be incurable 
should be placed in separate asylums. No other 
issue was ever raised in New York or in the 
Association. Some " earnest men " believed the States 
would not grant the means for the necessary expendi- 
ture for general hospitals, and as the chronic cases 
required less expensive structures, whether kept in the 
general hospitals or special institutions, it would be 
better to create two classes of institutions. Equally 
"earnest men" in the Association and a larger number, 
thought the States would meet the expense, and that 
universal provision could be as economically made by 
continuing the established method of enlarging the 
institutions from time to time; as expressed by Dr. 
Brown, of Bloomingdale, endorsing what the Journal 
of Insanity had said, " expansion of the existing 
hospital system to embrace all of the class of the insane 
requiring the aid and support of the State." This was 
the whole of it. None of the helpless were to be cast 
out or "thrown to lions," or left "festering in cages or 
jails." 
New York was not involved in the question dis- 
cussed at the Association. As we have already stated, 27 
a year previously she had determined on two classes of 
institutions by the Legislative enactment entitled: 
"An act to authorize the establishment of a State 
asylum for the chronic insane and for the better care of 
the insane poor, to be known as the Willard Asylum 
for the Insane," and had appropriated $75,000 to com- 
mence the work. The writer was chairman of the com- 
mission to locate and give a plan for theWillard Asylum, 
with Dr. Jno. B. Chapin and Dr. Julian T. Williams. 
There was no necessity, therefore, for Dr. Godding's 
dream of a pilgrimage, in the spring of 1866, to "go 
down from New York to Albany" in the special 
interest of humanity in that State. The Willard 
Asylum, as we have shown, was authorized before the 
Association had taken any action; before Drs. Butler, 
Walker and Curwen were appointed to report on the 
subject of the care of the chronic insane, and Dr. Cook, 
in his paper read at that meeting so stated and quoted 
the act. The question for the Association of Superin- 
tendents, was simply whether it should follow the lead, 
of New York and endorse her policy. Besides, there 
was no " forlorn hope " led by anyone, or ever needed 
in New York, as he represents. The Willard plan 
had been proposed by the Governor to the Legislature 
and passed without opposition, and was heartily 
espoused by such men as Judge Folger, Ezra Cornell, 
William Kelly, Ac., and was in popular favor, especially 
as it proposed a less expensive method of provision, 
and further, no institution ever received more generous 
support in its inception and subsequent extension than 
the Willard Asylum. 
We can not allow such an expression as this to pass 
unnoticed in a memorial service. Alluding to Willard 
he says: "See what, under the careful management, 
the energy and determination of one man, this establish- 28 
merit, in spite of croaking and coldness, and opposition, 
has grown to be." After the policy of New York was 
settled in favor of two classes of institutions, and Dr. 
Chapin was appointed Superintendent, there was no 
opposition, neither was there any "croaking" or "cold- 
ness" before or after. If there had been, it would have 
been all the more out of place in such a paper, at such 
a time and in such a place, to refer to it. 
The institutions of New York have grown out of the 
sentiment of 1855 which pervaded the people, and 
have become what they are under the united efforts of 
the officers of asylums and superintendents of the poor 
having immediate charge of the insane poor, sustained 
by the medical profession, both as individuals and as a 
State society. Whatever difference existed as to how 
the work might be best accomplished there was 
unanimity of aim and that aim was to provide for all. 
There were embarrassments, delays and impediments 
which came out of questions of public policy as to how 
rapidly the result could be reached or how it best 
could be accomplished. There were also embarrass- 
ments, confusion and delays from the agitation of 
iconoclastic reformers without experience, whom 
enthusiasm led to see in themselves the possibilities of 
coming centuries of psychiatry, and who were im- 
patient of the conservative spirit determined to see the 
results of progress step by step. Again in a large 
measure, we are pained to say, evils have come from 
men who appeared in the light of detractors, 
scandalizers and pernicious agitators. The first kind 
of obstructiveness is healthful, the second inevitable, 
but can be got along with ; the last is pernicious and 
poisonous, but nevertheless powerless on the whole 
against the steady progress of humanity which must in 
the end succeed. Again and again, these latter have 29 
put themselves up as special reformers, opponents of 
the established progressive system of things, and 
assumed the guise of missionaries of new systems, or 
those of France, Scotland, England, or their own or all 
combined-anything, indeed, but the system in use; 
which was too old, or too new, too weak or too strong, too 
arbitrary or too loose. Their motto has seemed to be 
Si perfectionem requiris, me adspice. 
While alternately glorifying and depreciating the 
labors of our predecessors, and of the members of the 
Association down to the present time, Dr. Godding 
finally climbs to the loftiest heights of the Pisgah of 
psychology, and looks down upon the great general 
hospitals covering the land, with supreme satisfaction. 
At the same time he beholds these same institutions, 
with prophetic eye, crumbling like the Parthenon on 
the heights of the Acropolis at Athens: "Noble monu- 
ments of the past, but not habitations to live in." He 
fails to show, however, that the Parthenon was ever 
erected for a habitation, for either sane or insane. In 
this vision he sees the ghostly forms of the authors of 
these institutions hunting through the moldering rub- 
bish for trinkets as testimonials of their former 
reputation. lie espies, however, away from these, resting 
on the plains of the far-off west, at last the Mecca of 
his hopes, and exclaims, "Kankakee," "Kankakee," 
"Eureka," "Eureka." He sees in the structure of 
that asylum a great central institution receiving all 
classes of the insane--just what the Association 
originally proclaimed, the collection in a single hospital, 
under a single head, of all classes of the insane-and 
says: " Here may be seen buildings specially fitted for 
the sick, the epileptic, the suicidal, the quiet dement, 
the boisterous, the untidy, the paralyzed, in short, an 30 
effort has been made here from the start, to differentiate 
the provision and to suit detached but associated build- 
ings to the needs of every condition of insanity," 
certainly no separate institution for the insane of the 
chronic class. 
Well, what is the result? After all the glorification 
bestowed on these experiments and their authors, Dr. 
Godding comes back at last to the very principle of 
the propositions of the Association. He adopts with 
enthusiasm, indeed, the same ideas that were suggested 
in the first annual report of Dr. Stephen Smith, the 
Commissioner in Lunacy for the State of New York, who 
sees the objection to a vast receptacle at some remote 
point in the State, collecting all the chronic lunacy as 
well as able-bodied laborers from the various hospitals 
of the State on to one farm; an enterprise placing 
a vast body of paupers out of all easy reach or 
sight of their relatives. At any rate, he makes a 
complete surrender of the " separate provision plan," 
and a triumphant vindication of the propositions 
of the Association. Of course, it must rest in the 
judgment of our boards of medical officers how best to 
secure the proper classification and ward separation 
with the least expenditure and friction compatible with 
the real welfare of the insane. This problem can 
safely be left in the light of experience to work itself 
out. 
Is all this new which Dr. Godding has said ? 
Before the vision of " the men of '66," had appeared 
to Dr. Godding, the American Journal of Insanity, 
October, 1865, Volume XXII, immediately after 
Willard was authorized, pressed upon the State of 
New York the following recommendations: 
The State should be apportioned into three sections, equal in 
population, and the insane of the central section sent to Utica. 31 
Two hospitals for the treatment of acute paroxysmal or violent 
insane should be built, one in the eastern and one in the western 
section, whose sole architectural requirements should be perfect 
adaptability to the wants of hospital practice. Separate build- 
ings, less expensive, and of similar construction, out of the 
hospital and disconnected with it should be provided for the quiet 
and filthy dements and paralytics. Buildings of a suitable form 
should also be erected for the treatment of epileptics. Each 
hospital should have a farm attached to it of from three to five 
hundred acres, to the cultivation of which the labor of patients 
should be particularly directed, both from economical considera- 
tions and the medical benefits to the insane of out-door life and 
occupation. Upon the farm there should be cottages for the 
employes engaged in the various agricultural and industrial 
departments of the institution. With these employes, the 
orderly, industrious chronic or the convalescent acute patient 
might reside. Such an arrangement would permit a certain 
degree of family-life and a larger liberty to this class than are 
compatible with the organization of the hospital proper. It might 
be found practicable, after due consideration, to withdraw a 
certain proportion of patients from the hospital and domicile them 
in cottages which could, in great measure, be constructed at small 
expense by the labor of patients themselves. 
It will be seen, therefore, after all his wanderings 
and uncertainties, Dr. Godding comes to the recom- 
mendation of this Journal in 1865, and recommends 
the very institution fashioned almost after the language 
then uttered in the " golden age of cathedrals." After 
all his dexterous manipulation of facts to the apparent 
discredit of the Association, he in the end comes down 
by way of Kankakee, squarely and openly into the camp 
of the dreaded propositionists like a prodigal returning 
home. 
One thing more. Looking over the " evidences of pro- 
gress," we find, Dr. Godding says, respecting the Govern- 
ment Hospital, that Dr. Nichols ''made here the first 
distinct detached building for the colored insane in 
America, thereby placing his hospital provision outside 32 
of the propositions by placing it twenty-five years ahead 
of his time and abreast of the requirements of to-day." 
Pray, what proposition did this get outside of? The 
colored people in the various States, certainly in the 
State of New York, had always until then, and ever 
since have been received into the various State hospitals 
equally with the whites and have received the same 
treatment. Had the United States Government done 
less for colored people in the District of Columbia, then, 
it would have fallen far short of a plain simple duty. 
Dr. Nichols, in the original plan of the institution, 
recommended to the United States Congress, to provide 
"a Lodge" for the care of the colored insane instead 
of treating them in the wards among the white patients. 
In 1859, this Lodge contained, according to Dr. Nichols' 
report, 6 colored men and 11 colored women, and was 
so crowded that he recommended that another be built, 
and one be used for each sex. 
At this day, from the Government Hospital this 
separation of the soldiers and sailors of the Army and 
Navy of the United States on account of color, would 
seem a strange proceeding to glory in, when colored men 
sit in the Legislatures of the States, in the Congress of 
the United States and in the United States Senate, and 
when recently a colored man was a most respected 
Marshal of the District of Columbia under appoint- 
ment of the President of the United States. THE 
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INSANITY. 
S • £ 
The American Journal oe Insanity is published quarterly, at the 
State Lunatic Asylum, Utica, N. Y. The first number of each volume 
is issued in July. 
Editor, 
JOHN P. GRAY, M. D., LL. D., Medical Superintendent. 
Associate Editors, 
EDWARD N. BRUSH, M. D., ] 
G. ALDER BLUMER, M. D., 
CHARLES W. PILGRIM, M. D., h^tant Physicians. 
I 
OGDEN BACKUS, M. D., J 
THEODORE DEECKE, Special Pathologist. 
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Five Dollars per JYnmrm., in Advance. 
Exchanges Books for Review, and Business Communications 
may be sent to the Editor, directed as follows: "Journal of 
Insanity, State Lunatic Asylum, Utica, N. Y." 
The Journal is now in its forty-first volume. It was estab- 
lished by the late Dr. Brigham, the first Superintendent of the 
New York State Lunatic Asylum, and after his death edited by Dr. T. 
Romeyn Beck, author of "Beck's Medical Jurisprudence;" and since 
1854, by Dr. John P. Gray, and the Medical Staff of the Asylum. It is 
the oldest journal devoted especially to Insanity, its Treatment, Juris- 
prudence, &c., and is particularly valuable to the medical and legal 
professions, and to all interested in the subject of Insanity and Psy- 
chological Science.