HOMCEOPATHIC 
I X S A X E ASYLUM. 
GEO. F. FOOTE, M. 1). 
The Homoeopathic practice of medicine in thi£ country alone 
now numbers over five thousand physicians, while its recipi- 
ents and believers are numbered by many hundreds of 
thousands. These are from the most intelligent and respect- 
able portion of the community,—people of good sense, good 
judgment, in every way competent to distinguish between 
right and wrong. They represent all professions, trades and 
arts, and their numbers are increasing at a ratio in harmony 
with the progressive age in which avc live; affording abundant 
evidence that this great system of medical reform is one of the 
powers that helps to modern improvements, while it is promot- 
ing the happiness and well-being of mankind. 
AVe luwe colleges for the instruction of those avIio aspire to 
the healing art; Ave have dispensaries and hospitals where the 
unfortunate sick may receive proper medical attention; but 
Ave haATe no asylum Avhere the sick insane can receive the 
blessings of Homoeopathic treatment. 
This is a startling fact, in vieAV of the daily calls that rise up 
from all parts of the country for our aid in this direction, and 
even in vieAV of the danger that besets our friends, our families 
and even our own persons, liable as avo all are to become 
victims to this terrible scourge, which may at any time drop 2 
Homoeopathic Insane Asylum. 
into the domestic circle leaving a direful wake of desolation 
and heart-rending misery. 
The time has come for action, the call is imperative, and we 
cannot longer fold our hands and, McCawber like, “wait for 
something to turn up,” wait for somebody else to do this work. 
We must bring this matter home to our own doors and stand 
face to face with the facts; and they are facts which, when 
duly reflected upon, are startling in the extreme. 
Is it not alarming when we come to reflect that we ourselves, 
or any member of our household, a bosom companion, or our 
children, if attacked with this disease, must be hurried oft' to 
an asylum where the Allopathic treatment reigns supreme? 
Where we and our friends cannot, in any particular, be ad- 
visory as to the administration of remedies, or even to visit 
them in person ? Is it not alarming when we reflect that there 
is no retreat, no home, where, if necessity requires it, they can 
be sent and receive that benign treatment our long experience 
has taught us is so efficacious in curing the sick mind as well 
as the sick body ? Nothing but Allopathy for ourselves and 
our dearest friends, when the worst of all calamities, in the 
shape of disease, shall beset us or them ? 
We may continue to walk our daily rounds and pursue our 
daily avocations with commendable zeal; we may gather into 
our garners the goods of this life, and even say to our souls, 
“ Take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry.” But we are in 
danger; the storm king may be howling in the distant hori- 
zon, and the deluge may come with terrific fury and engulf 
us in a fearful flood, entailing desolation and sorrow when we 
least expect it. 
These are serious thoughts that it behoves us to dwell upon. 
We are personally interested, and the prospective possibilities 
demand a preparation; while the pressing calls of those now 
suffering, demand immediate action. 
The subject is momentous and we must be up and doing. 
We must work until we have an abiding place for our sick in- 
sane, where we can pour on the oil and wine, where we can say 
to our suffering friends come and be healed. 
AYTi must talk about it in our homes, in our offices, upon the 
street corners and among our patrons. We must give from 
our own stores, and gather from the overflowing coffers of our Homoeopathic Insane Asylum. 
3 
friends. And if avc all labor with a heart and will, we shall 
soon see our efforts crowned with success, and the desire of our 
hearts gratified, Avhile the rewards due to a good action shall 
tell upon our lives, and “our children shall rise up and call us 
blessed.” 
THE ORGANIZATION*. 
To ensure success in any enterprise those engaged in it must 
become conversant with the business in hand. They must 
know their wants and the means to secure the ends sought. 
They must profit by past experience and be able to anticipate 
probable results. 
It is also equally important in this great work, from which 
we anticipate so much good professionally and socially, that 
we carefully canvass this matter. 
And first, what do we want? The answer is, the best asy- 
lum for the insane that the ingenuity of man, duly enlightened 
by all past experience, can devise. The best designs for 
buildings, combining all modern improvements, with the best 
system of ventilation and warming, the most appropriate furn- 
iture, and the best and most humane system of management, 
where everything combines to give a home-like appearance; 
where a mild and proper restraint can be enforced without the 
horrors of bars and prison discipline, and where all this can be 
combined with an intelligent administration of hygienic meas- 
ures and Homoeopathic medicines, so mild, so efficacious, so cer- 
tain in their results. Where we can demonstrate to the world 
that for this disease, as well as for other sufferings, we hold in 
our hands, through Divine aid, the balance of medical power; 
and where we can add to the charities of this progressive age, a 
new blessing pregnant with the good of life, and at the same 
time establish a new era in the progressive uses of our much 
loved profession. 
Having established our wants, how shall we obtain the end ? 
And this must lead us to the inquiry as to what has already 
been done, and what is now being done for the unfortunate in- 
sane throughout the world ? 
Within the past few years great changes have been wrought 
in their management. Comfortable quarters and pleasant 
homes, take the place of crowded jails and prison cells; mild 4 
Ilorntwpathic Insane Asylum. 
measures and persuasive means, take the place of cruel stripes 
iMid galling chains; while a wholesome diet and the best hy- 
gienic treatment are substituted for a prisoner’s fare, and the 
loathsome exhalations of the felon’s dungeon. 
And while everything is being done that shall conduce to 
the comfort of the patients, and while the best, most kind- 
hearted and worthy men are selected as superintending physi- 
cians, yet in all the institutions throughout the world, up to 
the present time, the medical management is Allopathic. The 
treatment consists in supporting the body with a wholesome 
diet and hygienic surroundings, and abiding the event of time. 
In other words it is expectant. They give but little medicine 
to reach the conditions of the mind, for the reason that they 
look upon these as an adjunct of debility that does not require 
special medication : a striking contrast to the Homoeopathic 
law of cure which accepts the conditions of the mind as an ex- 
pression of the disease, the symptoms of which condition form 
a prominent guide to the selection of the remedy. 
Other questions arise that concern us at this stage of the 
proceedings, viz: what plan of organization has been found 
to answer the most desirable ends, and what is best adapted 
to our wants ? 
These are important questions and must be answered before 
our plan of operations is matured. 
Both in this country and in Europe there are three modes of 
inaugurating similar institutions: 
1st. As public charities under the direction and support of 
the State, county, or city, free to all who are not able to pay, 
—as the Utica and Blackwell Island Asylums. 
They receive some paying patients who, with reason, coin- 
plain of the over crowded conditions, and the unpleasant as- 
sociations incident to pauperism. 
2d. As private asylums, of which there are but two in this 
country, one at Flushing, under the management of Dr. Bar- 
stOAv, and the other at Canandaigua, under the management of 
Dr. Cook. These in no sense can be termed charities. They 
are individual enterprises, created with a view to money mak- 
ing, same as the various water cures and private hospitals. 
The objections to these may be found in the fact that they are 
necessarily expensive. The patient must pay/in addition to Homoeopathic Insane Asylum. 
5 
the outlay, for medical supervision, attendants, living, etc., a 
per cent, on the cost of the ground and buildings, with a profit 
to the owners. This places it beyond the reach of a large pro- 
portion of our worthy and most respectable inhabitants who 
have but a moderate competence.* And again, the number 
necessarily being limited, the patients cannot be classified ac- 
cording to their mental conditions. Whereas with larger asso- 
ciations both sexes are each arranged into six or eight divisions 
with separate apartments. And finally they are not under the 
supervision of a board of trustees to watch over the general 
interest of the patients. There is no appeal from the superin- 
tending physician, who is a participant in the profits. 
3d. As a close corporation, an intermediate between the 
two former—like the Bloomingdale Asylum, New York, the 
Retreat for the Insane, at Hartford, Conn., and the McLean 
Asylum, at Summerville, near Boston. 
These are founded on private charity and endowments. The 
lands are obtained and the buildings erected and furnished by 
contributions for this object. But the current expenses are 
paid by the patients, each in proportion to the rooms occupied 
and the attention given. The superintending physician and 
officers are all salaried, and have no pecuniary interest beyond 
this. It is under the direction of a board of trustees, selected 
from well known and most trustworthy citizens, who control 
the management and keep a general supervision of its opera- 
tions. They stand between the public and the officers, listen 
to complaints and correct abuses. The advantages are— 
1st. It is a large charity without the stigma of pauperism 
attached to it. 
2d. It is self-supporting. 
3d. It is accessible to a large class of respectable citizens 
who are able and willing to pay current expenses, but are not 
able to pay extravagant prices. At the same time it is equally 
* Average cost per week in different asylums for each patient, for 1869, the charges 
for each varying according to the attention required. 
McLean Asylum, near Boston, (about) $16.00 
Bloomingdale Asylum, New York, (about) 12.00 
Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, Philadelphia, 8.72 
Blackwell Island Asylum, New York (pauper), 1200 patients, with room intend- 
ed for only 600, (including clothing) 2.34 
At Flushing (private) charges are from $35 to $55. 6 
llonumpathic [mane, Asylum. 
available to the more wealthy who eau receive the attention, and 
be accommodated with quarters commensurate with their ability 
to pay. It is, to all intents and purposes, a respectable charity, 
where the occupants and their friends feel that they are giving 
a qu id pro quo. 
4th. It being a close corporation the board of trustees, or 
governors, who are chosen for life, till all vacancies that may 
occur in their number, thus placing it above all political in- 
fluence, while the managing power acquires experience and a 
paternal interest and devotion attained only through time and 
continued application. 
It has been proposed to raise the funds to build an asylum 
by issuing stocks with a promise of dividends; but any busi- 
ness man must readily see that this must result in a failure. 
Xo one wishing to make investments with a sure return of 
profits would venture upon such expectation, knowing that in 
justice to the patients all the surplus, above current expendi- 
tures, should be applied in improving their condition by beau- 
tifying their surroundings, contributing to their amusements, 
and in every way adding to their comforts, so as to make the 
time pass as pleasantly as their mental state will admit. 
But few persons would care to speculate out of the unfor- 
tunate insane, while all are interested in providing for them a 
pleasant retreat with home-like comforts and good medical at- 
tendance. A stock organization precludes all hope of any 
donations or endowments as well as any aid from the State. 
Having visited the different asylums and witnessed their 
workings, having been in consultation with their governors and 
superintendants, who have generously aided in these investiga- 
tions, I am of the opinion that the best form of organization is 
that of a close corporation above described, like the Blooming- 
dale asylum. 
In addition to the reasons given above in favor of this plan, 
1 will add that by adopting it we can safely rely upon aid 
from the State. Bloomingdale received $10,000 a year for a 
number of years, until by donations and advance of real 
estate they were placed above this want. 
In this charity, as in most others, we have been deprived of 
our rights to be represented in the legislative disbursements. 
Heretofore all private as well as public donations have been Homoeopathic Insane Asylum. 
7 
given to asylums placed under Allopathic supervision. This 
has been an injustice to us, and an injustice to the friends of 
Homoeopathy. 
Knowing, as we do, that this disease would be far less for- 
midable, its duration greatly shortened, and the number of in- 
curable cases materially lessened by Homoeopathic treatment, 
we have a bight to demand that a public asylum should be set 
apart to our management, where we can extend its blessings 
to a large class of patients desiring it, and where we can show 
to the world its superior advantages. 
A strong appeal to the friends of Homoeopathy, with tin1 
facts duly presented, will result in substantial aid. It has 
been given for other charities, and it will be given for 
this. Homoeopathists have contributed largely to Allopathic 
charities, and Homoeopathists will contribute to a Homoeopa- 
thic charity. Let every one, put his shoulder to the 
wheel and feel personally that success depends upon action, 
and in the end we shall see an asylum that shall be a lasting 
monument in proof of the law shnilla similibus curantur. 
At a regular meeting of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of 
the City and County of New York, held this Nov. lOtli, I860, the 
following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted: 
Whereas, The Lunatic Asylums of this State, owing to their present 
overcrowded conditions, are inadequate to the wants of our increasing 
population, 
Whereas, The Medical practice of the existing asylums is exclusively 
Allopathic, thus debarring our patients from their chosen system, 
Whereas, We believe that under Homoeopathic treatment mental di- 
seases are less formidable, the time required for their cure much shorter, 
and the number of incurable patients less than under any other system of 
medical practice, therefore 
Resolved, That this society recognizes the necessity for an additional 
Lunatic Asylum in which patients should have Homoeopathic treatment; 
and that wre wrill aid in its establishment. 
Resolved, That Geo. F. Foote, M. D., being engaged in preparing 
plans and soliciting subscriptions for the organization and construction 
of such an asylum, this society endorse his project and recommend it to 
the profession and the community. 
HENRY D. PAINE, M. D., 
President. 
HENRY M. SMITH, M. D., 
Secretary.