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ADDRESS, DELIVERED AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNER STONE OF THE INSANE HOSPITAL, AT »* NORTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS, / BY EDWARD JARVIS, M. D. P u. s. A. NORTHAMPTON : PRINTED BY J- & L. MET CALF, 1856, ffCW ,J3 ADDRESS. DIVERSITIES OF HUMAN CONDITION. The varieties of human condition and the apparent diver- sities of earthly destiny have been the subjects of observation and of complaint almost from the beginning. For many ages, the world, through all the grades of barbarism and of culture, have seen and mourned over this, and though men of high and of low degree, governments and statesmen, philanthropists, religionists and associations have desired and endeavored to remove the inequalities of the human lot, still we are even now compelled to acknowledge that in all that belongs to man, or that enters into his being, in all that surrounds him or affects him, in all his endowments and blessings, his priva- tions and sufferings, there is no uniformity. Few are, in all respects, alike. Men differ in all things, and in some they differ very widely. Some are endowed with certain powers or enjoyments in the fullest measure, most have them in a medium degree, and some are nearly, while others are quite, destitute of them. Some are rich in this world's goods, many are in comfortable circumstances, and others are very poor. Few are learned in a high degree, most have sufficient knowledge for the safe management of the affairs of life, and some are grossly ignorant. Many are in the highest state of bodily health and vigor, most are strong enough to provide their own sustenance, while some are sick and need the care of others. To compensate, in some measure, for this discrepancy of blessings, there is implanted in man a love for his race, a recognition, that all are the children of the same Loving Father — and there is also in him a general desire — if not to equalize — certainly to impart something to those who have the least or who are destitute, and thereby alleviate their sufferings, raise them somewhat toward the level of their fellows and save them all from destruction. There is a general and acknowledged obligation resting on mankind for the strong to protect and aid the weak, — the rich to provide for the poor, the wise to guide the foolish, — the healthy to nurse the sick, — and the sound in mind to cure and care for the insane. The higher the state of civilization, the more are these obligations recognized — and the stronger and the purer the Christian principle, the greater will be their influence on men's hearts and lives ; — for as civilization advances and Christianity prevails, men love each other more and more, and their love becomes a principle and that principle a practice, and that practice a habit of life. Civilization improves the circumstances of man's earthly condition, it multiplies comforts, it increases prosperity, it diminishes the burdens on men's lives and fortunes, it amelio- rates the manners, it cultivates the understanding and removes the obstacles to human progress. Christianity looks deeper into man, it increases happiness and lessens suffering. It elevates the ideal of the present as well as of the future being. So in the progress of the world, both governments and people, associations and individuals manifest their faith by their works and provide more and more the means of relieving want, of supporting the weak, and of comforting the sufferers, of eveiy sort, and in every condition. DIVERSITIES OP MENTAL HEALTH. Among the inequalities, that belong to mankind, that of mental power and mental health is marked and prominent. As in bodily health and strength, and as in education and fortune and all external circumstances, so in the powers of the mind, there are every variety and degree from the highest down to the lowest. From him who is the wisest and the best balanced, down to him who is the weakest and the wildest in intellect, there is every grade of power and health of mind. CAUSES OF MENTAL DISORDER. Some of the causes of these mental diversities are inherent in man. Some are born with him. Many are created and developed and grown, in the progress of his being. Some of these causes are intimately connected with the condition and the affairs of common life. They belong to, or grow out of, many of the customs and presumed advantages of the cultivated state. They are often the mere perversion or the misapplica- tion of some of the powers of our being, of the privileges of our condition, the excessive or the misdirected use of some of the natural and living forces, the indiscreet appropriation of some of the opportunities and blessings offered to man and to society. These powers and privileges, when rightly employed, build man up and make him strong and successful and happy. But when they are misapplied, or unfitted to the circumstances of life, they overthrow and distress him. In their appropriate use, they are allowed and encouraged — they are practiced by,- and render profit to, general society, and all are advised to make use of, and try to enjoy, them. But though they are successfully used by many, yet it is only under appropriate circumstances, that they produce or sustain mental health or leave it unimpaired, for, in other conditions, they exhaust and disturb the mind and the moral affections. Not unfrequently they cause intellectual weakness and some- times mental derangement, and then, when least expected, insanity is established. So it often proves, that the very means which bring the most desirable blessings to those who use them judiciously and in most men's hands are successful, are, to the indiscreet and the unfortunate, the sources of one of the direst evils that falls upon humanity. Among the fruitful causes of insanity are inappropriate and perverted application of the powers of the mind and body, the intemperate or excessive use of the gifts or the opportunities allowed to us, the things, which a benevolent Providence lends us for blessings, and are such, in the hands of the wise and faithful : — The intemperate indulgence of every appetite, passion and propensity, of every faculty and power of body or of mind, beyond their due measure, or beyond that, which is required of them : — The excessive use of food and drinks, especially of those of the stimulating sort : — The excessive action and the misappropriation of the mental forces : — The overwrought feelings and emotions : — The eager desire and the earnest but unsuccessful exertion to acquire knowledge or position or influence, to obtain any blessing or advantage which is above the power of him who strives for it, and who for this purpose, makes exertions which are beyond the power of the brain or mind to sustain without faltering : — all these tend to produce and frequently create mental disorder. Misplaced hope and undue ambition, the overwhelming and insatiable anxiety to secure that which seems to be within the grasp, but yet is beyond the reach, and the disappointment which necessarily follows, when failure comes : — The fluctua- tions of business : — The high seeming prosperity followed by certain adversity : — The sudden possession of unaccustomed wealth : — The elevation to positions of power or responsibility, of honor, fashion or social rank, which are beyond the mental or moral strength or above the degree of cultivation or refine- ment necessary to sustain them with ease or satisfaction : The assumption of any burden upon the mind or the feelings, the brain or the nervous system which the natural and original forces, the previous training and education and the experience of life have not prepared one sufficiently to bear : The deep depressions of grief, the corroding and exhausting anxieties of doubt and of fear and the heavy sorrows that wei^h on the heart, when friends are in danger or are lost : The excitements of Religion above what true piety and godliness require, of politics, of party, or benevolence beyond what reason and truth can justify. The imagination when highly wrought in regard to things infinite and eternal, and to mortal man incomprehensible and unattainable, and even when unnaturally bent on things of lower and more intelligible nature : — All these are dangerous to mental health. They frequently impair it and sometimes destroy it. The manifold accidents from machinery, from travel, from the use of powers, that are converted, but not always subdued, to the use of man : — * *The reports of sixteen Hospitals, in the United States, give the supposed cause of the insanity of 14,941 out of 24,723 patients received during all or a part of the years of their operation. The causes are condensed and classified in the following table. Ill health of various kinds, 3586 Apoplexy, Epilepsy and Palsy, 592 Female Derangements, 1415 Injuries and Accidents, 333 Exposures to Heat, Cold, &c, 226 Excess of Labor, Privation of Sleep, &c, 522 Excess of Study, Mental Struggles, Excitements, &c, 472 Anxieties, struggles and trials~of Business, Poverty, &c, 1134 Disappointments in respect to Ambition, Property, &c, 156 Disappointed Love, 559 Spirit Rappings and Mesmerism, 182 Fright and Fear, 182 Home sickness, 46 Grief, Sorrow and Anxiety, 1549 Domestic Troubles, Persecutions, &c, 665 Connected with Religion, 1280 Bad Education, Wrong Plan of Life, 67 Intemperance, 1788 Use of Tobacco and Opium, 110 Vicious Indulgence, 1011 Bad Temper, Passion, &c, 161 These are among the many causes of mental derangement, and they are or they seem to be the most prominent and frequent here, in our State and Nation. In their lesser and more proper degrees, most of these or rather the steps that lead to these are tolerated and encour- aged by public opinion. Many of them receive its high appro- bation, and people engage in them or are exposed to them with hopes of advantage or justifiable enjoyment, and feelings of security, and with no suspicion, that any evil may come upon their minds or that they may thereby be drawn into lunacy. SOME CAUSES OF MENTAL DISOKDER BELONG TO THE CIVILISED STATE. Many of these causes of mental disorder, or rather the customs, habits or indulgences, out of which these causes grow, are inherent in the very structure of society — they form a part of its frame work : They enter into and add their part to the life of our social being. They belong especially to the more cultivated condition such as we enjoy, in this most favored land. For here the mind is free and the choice of all things is offered to all men to select that which they may have power to obtain. Here no man is bound down to the condition or the walk or the occupation of his fathers, nor even to that which he himself is now following, but all the walks and employments are open to all men, and at all times, and they may select whatever they wish, whether fitted or unfitted to their capacity and powers, and they may change as often as it pleases them. Here education is free to every child and to every man and woman, and learning may grow luxuriantly even on the soil, which barren ignorance covered before, if one will but take the trouble to cultivate it. Here Religion invites all to come and enjoy any of her diversified forms, each in the wa}^ best suited to his own mental condition or his conscience. Here every man and every woman may believe and proclaim any doctrine or the principles of any party ; and they may pour forth their convictions, with all the zeal of earnest propagandism. Here emotions may bum and speak out, and passion may riot unrestrained. These blessings, privileges or opportunities belong to our civilized state and cannot here be extinguished. A higher civilization, than we possess or even the world has yet known, would restrain these within the just limits of prudence, and health, and make them, in all cases, subserve the greater interests and create the best happiness of man. EDUCATION IMPERFECT FOR MENTAL HEALTH. There is yet more for our civilization to do. We need more and better knowledge of ourselves, and of our powers, their nature and their limit, their uses and their relation to the outer world. We need more self-discipline, more control of our emotions, and desires, of our appetites and our passions. When we educate our children or ourselves, we need to know the precise limit of the power to acquire knowledge. When we grasp at privileges, or blessings or positions, we need to know the extent of the arm to reach and the strength of the hand to hold. When we assume any burdens on the mind or the affections, we need to understand, how far we are able to bear them. Before we attempt to effect any purpose, we ought to under- stand the degree of our energy to labor and the measure of our strength to accomplish. It is a common and favorite notion, that the human mind, man's immortal part, has an unlimited power of labor, of 2 10 acquisition, and of endurance. But this has no foundation in the laws of our present being. The immortal mind, so long as it dwells in the body, is necessarily connected with the' brain, and is subject to its conditions, and liable to its suffer- ings and yet this essential and irrevocable law of life is neither recognized nor taught as a matter of universal or even general obligation. We educate our children in the schools and ourselves at our homes, or in the world— but we neither learn for ourselves nor do we tell them, that there is a bound beyond which our mental exertions cannot safely go, a limit of acquirement which cannot be passed. We neither learn nor teach the connection between the mind and the brain, the relation of the mental operations, the emotions and passions to the physical frame, and thus the conditions which are appointed for all the human family, for the government of their lives and the use of their powers, seem to be left out of sight, in our education and preparation for responsible life. Our youth go forth to the world and we walk and labor in it, with ours and their mental machinery in the highest condition we see fit to place it ;■ — but it sometimes lacks a balance wheel and may move irregularly, it may run too fast and get out of order : it may be applied to unfitting purposes and thereby be broken, it may be over-tasked or over-worked —thence mental disturbance in a greater or less degree may appear, and derangement may sometimes ensue and perhaps insanity be established. Diseases of the mind must t&en come upon us and they will return again and again so long as education is thus imperfect, and whenever and wherever men's habits and customs, their plans of life and their self-management are not in accordance with their powers and the condition of their being. SOME CAUSES OF INSANITY INCKEASE WITH CIVILIZATION. It is a melancholy consideration, that some of these causes- increase in extent and powers with the elevation and the 11 growth of society, and perhaps insanity from these sources may increase faster in this country than the numbers of the people. Within forty years previous to 18§0, the population of Massachusetts increased one hundred and ten per cent. And that of the United States two hundred and twenty per cent. Yet the number of persons, male and female, in our State and Nation, who, with or without previous training or powers duly developed, task their minds and their brains to their utmost, have increased in a much greater ratio. The numbers of those who are, or who strive to be, highly educated,- — who engage in new studies, — who undertake to be philosophers, chemists, mathematicians, phrenologists, bota- nists, or adepts in some other science — who endeavor to fathom the mysteries of theology, who explore the range of history, literature, or criticism — -who take deep interest in new principles and doctrines, who engage in partizan move- ments, — who bear the burdens of new enterprizes, who strive to gain new positions, or struggle to sustain themselves there when once attained, — the numbers of those who change from quiet and undisturbing to active and ^anxious modes of life, of those who cease the labor of their hands and betake themselves to the labor of their brains, the numbers of the farmers who become merchants, of the mechanics who become manufactu- rers, of those who leave any sure occupation to become speculators, or engage in hazardous schemes, and, with their unaccustomed minds, rush into untried fields of enterprise, — the numbers of those who are raised to high and responsible conditions from low and irresponsible ones, — of those who are subject to reverses and disappointments, of those who are exposed to accidents and injuries from machinery, from travel, from chemical action, and of those whose health suffers from -excessive and irregular mental exertion, or from the artificial -and unnatural customs of fashionable life :— the numbers of 12 these — and of those among them, who impair and who are liable to lose their mental health, have increased, in a much greater ratio, than the population of either the State or Nation. DUTY OF SOCIETY TO CARE FOR THE INSANE. Seeing then, that society establishes, encourages or permits these customs out of which mental disorder may and frequently does arise and is willing to enjoy and profit by them, and moreover seeing, that it raises no beacons to warn the careless and the indiscreet, and builds no safeguards to protect the weak and the unfortunate from impairing or losing their minds through them, — it would seem to be incumbent upon the body politic, as far as possible, to remedy that evil, whenever and wherever it may present itself. Beside the general obli- gation resting upon every civilized State to sustain and protect all its weaker or suffering members who cannot do these for themselves, it is then the especial duty of the Commonwealth to heal the wounds it inflicts or allows to be inflicted and to provide the means of curing and protecting its insane. INSANITY INQUIRY IN MASSACHUSETTS. It is a marked step in civilization, when society acknowl- edges this obligation to relieve its weaker members, and especially those who suffer from its admitted imperfections, and thus to make amends for the deficiencies of its own law. And the higher the degree of the social progress, the more carefully does the State search out its feeble and suffering children and the more freely does it offer them the means of relief. In this matter Massachusetts has vindicated her claim to a high degree of advancement. In 1S54, the Legislature ordered, that a Commission, to be appointed by the Governor, should be authorized and directed — 1st, To ascertain the number and condition of the insane in the Commonwealth, and 2d, To see what farther accommo- dations, if anv. are needed for the relief and care of the insane. 13 This Commission, presuming that the domestic condition of every family was known to some practitioner of medicine, and that they would obtain a fuller and more reliable account of the insane by the aid of the medical profession than in any other way, sent their letters of inquiry to every physician in the State. In their letters they asked thirteen questions in respect to every insane man and woman within the knowledge of each informer. Among these, they asked the name, sex, age, birth-place, form and state of disease ; whether suitable for a Hospital or not ; whether curable or incurable ; whether supported by the public treasury or by their own property or friends ; and whether he or she had enjoyed the opportunity of being healed in any hospital. There were thirteen hundred and nineteen of these physi- cians who were reliable witnesses and then in practice, and had therefore opportunities of observation, whose testimony was therefore desirable. All of these, but four, returned answers to the inquiries of the Commission. Beside this, inquiry was made of one hundred and forty-six others, — Clergymen, Overseers of the Poor, Superintendents of Hospitals in this and other States, Masters of the several Houses of Correction, Sheriffs, and Superintendents of the State Alms Houses, &c, and these made answers corroborating or adding to the information given by the physicians. Con- sidering the inthnate relation which the medical profession hold to their several families, it is manifest, that they have better means of observing the facts that were sought and that they offered a better channel for obtaining them than could be otherwise found. And as they responded almost universally, their testimony may be considered as all but complete and to cover the whole ground. The letters from the same towns, where two or more physicians or others reported and also the returns from all the Hospitals and other public establishments 14 in respect to each of their several towns, were carefully compared and those who were reported more than once were erased in the duplicates and thus the danger of counting any patient more than once, was avoided.* NUMBER AND CONDITION OF THE INSANE IN MASSACHUSETTS. The result of this whole survey shows, that there were 2632 insane persons in and belonging to the State of Massa- chusetts in 1854. That 1713 of them were, in the opinion of the physicians, fit subjects for Hospital care, either because their diseases were of recent origin and they could be restored by proper means, or because they were excitable or violent and should have the protection and the restraints of a Hospital for their own security and for that of the community. One thousand and fifty nine of these were in the Hospitals of this State and ninety-one in the Hospitals of other States. Besides these, there were one hundred and sixty-seven in the prisons and in the receptacles connected with them and forty in the State Alms Houses. The State Hospitals at Worcester and Taunton had six hundred and twenty patients with accommodations for only five hundred and seventy-seven, and the City Hospital of * It is not to be claimed, that this is absolutely complete, and that no families escaped the notice of these observers. Undoubtedly there were some, who, either by their own migrations or in the changes of the physicians, had not been brought to the notice of any of those witnesses who reported the towns where they were then living. Since the Legislature printed the report of the Commission, in 1855, four cases of insanity have been brought to their knowledge, which had escaped the notice of the physicians. On the other hand, they have learned that a pauper lunatic having a legal residence or claim for support in one town, had her actual residence in another, and was reported by both, and thereby counted twice. From another cause, a similar error is made in respect to another patient. These facts subsequently learned, would take two from and add four to the 2632 originally reported in the State in 1854, 15 Boston had two hundred and sixty-seven with room for only two hundred. The McLean Asylum with accommodations for two hundred was full, but forty-seven of the patients belonged to other States.* Six hundred and ten of those insane persons who were at their homes, were stated, by the physicians and others, that reported them, to be proper subjects for hospital treatment or care, for their own or the public good. Two hundred and five of these were supposed to be curable, if the suitable means should be applied, and the others were troublesome or dangerous and therefore needed the restraints and influence of some institution to save them from harm, and the community from disturbance. This great and fearful amount of insanity thus brought to light, by this Commission, was surprising to most people, but it was not unexpected to those who were familiar with the subject. Besides these six hundred and ten insane persons at their homes, whose cases presented a claim for aid, there were others in the Hospitals at Worcester and Boston and in the receptacles and prisons who needed more or better accom- modations than they could there enjoy. And those who had the charge of these institutions complained, that the pressure of their crowded inmates or the unsuitableness of their estab- lishments rendered it impossible for them to give to their patients the healing and the soothing influences which are needed in the management of mental diseases. * The following shows the accommodations in the several Hospitals and the number of patients in them in 1854. Hospitals. Worcester^ Taunton, Mc Lean, Boston, Private, tin 1855, the/Trustees of the Hospital at "Worcester converted some of the lodging rooms in each of the wards into day rooms and thereby diminished the capacity of the Institution, so that it can now properly contain only two kundred and eighty seven patients, and at thia moment, July 3d, 1856, it has seventy five more than it has room^for. The Trustees of the Hospital at Taunton have increased its capacity by the removal of the strong rooms and substituting others in their place. Accommodations Number of for Patients. Patients, 3271 364 . 250 256 200 200 200 267 35 19 16 THE LEGISLATURE MADE FARTHER PROVISION FOR THE INSANE. As soon as these facts were laid before the Legislature in 1855, that body took the matter into careful and serious consideration, and after cautious investigation, they resolved, without a single dissenting voice or vote, to make farther provision for the cure or the protection of these suffering insane, and for that purpose to build this Hospital. On former occasions like this, the Government has waited until the cry for relief, loud and earnest and long continued, had gone forth from the insane or their friends. Before the Hospital at Taunton was built, the State waited until five hundred and sixty eight patients had accumulated in the three hundred and twenty seven rooms then in the Institution at Worcester, and others were waiting at their homes, because there was no space for them to enter. Before the Hospital was built at Worcester, the prisons in the counties held many maniacs, and the poor houses were frequently provided with strong rooms and cages to confine their lunatics. Except the McLean Asylum at Charlestown, then a small but excellent institution, there was no means of healing offered in the State. Beside the McLean Asylum there were no places of refuge for these sufferers, but these jails and cages if they were violent, — and none at all, if they were mild and harmless. The philanthropist saw this with pain, and the political economist with dissatisfaction. There was needless suffering and no hope of relief. There was a heavy cost and no probable end but with life. However long the lunatic might lie in his prison or his cage, he was no nearer his restoration, and there was no escape from his malady or his prison house, except through the gate of death. In both cases the Government waited as long as the suffer- ing could be borne or the relief be postponed, until the cry increased to a clamor, and the clamor to an irresistible demand for Hospital accommodations. 17 The same delay has been manifested in other States, and their Governments too have postponed action, until humanity became clamorous and would wait no longer. The Legislature of Massachusetts in 1855, wisely took counsel of the past. They saw, that there was then a need of more Hospitals, and they knew, that this need went not back- ward. It would be useless to postpone the work, in expecta- tion, that this necessity would cease or diminish, for such always had increased both here and elsewhere, and this too must grow greater, year after year.* They therefore determined to erect this Hospital, at the earliest moment. They carefully counted the cost, and freely gave the means. They appropriated all that was asked, by the friends of the measure, — all that it was supposed would be needed, for the * There are no positive records, which can be used to demonstrate to a math- ematical certainty, the increase or the decrease of insanity in this or in any other State or country. No government has made two complete and reliable enumerations of the lunatics among the people, at two different periods, which could be used as the basis of comparison. Most national enumerations of this class of persons, carry evidence of imper- fectness on their very face and are therefore unreliable. The census of the United States gave 16,804 insane and idiots in 1840 and 31,397 in 1850. The former is known to be inaccurate in many of its details and the latter is probably incomplete, and no reliance can be placed on the comparison of these two numbers. Both the English and the French statements are manifestly imperfect. In the former some important classes of the insane were omitted, and in the latter the numbers are loosely given and many of them plainly conjectural. Nevertheless all the enumerations of the insane, for whatever purpose, and all the statements and complaints respecting their numbers both in Europe and in America, tend to show, that more and more of this class of sufferers appear to the public from time to time, and that this increase more than Iteeps pace with the population. A part of this apparent increase of the numbers of the insane is unquestionably due to the increase of attention to their maladies and a part to the progress of the disease, from the influence of existing causes. The records of Hospitals devoted to the care of these patients both here and elsewhere show a great increase of the demand for their accommodations. Forty years ago, there was but one Hospital in the United States devoted exclusively to this purpose. In 1820, there were three ; in 1830, eight; in 1840, 3 IS land and the house. The grant was free as well as generous. There was no restriction, except that the institution should be in one of the four western counties, and it should be used for the good of the insane, CHARACTER OF THE' NEW HOSPITAL. The Governor immediately appointed a Board of Commis- sioners required by the Law, and they were authorized and directed to select a place and build the Hospital. These Commissioners have selected a site in Northampton? which, for healthfulness of location, beauty of prospect, and convenience of access, is equal to any other. It is endowed with every facility needed for its purpose, and must ever gratify the friends of the insane. fourteen ; in 1845, twenty ; in 1850, twenty seven ; and in 1855, thirty seven, all in active operation, beside four others in the course of preparation. The records and the reports of all of these thirty seven institutions have been examined, excepting those of Georgia from the beginning, Louisiana for 1854 and 1855, and California for 1855. It should be stated also, that the pauper Hospital of New York did not publish the number of patients received, during the years 1834 to 1846, inclusive. Disregarding the omission at New York and assuming, that the other two hospitals, not including that of Georgia, admitted as many patients in those years, of which no report is received, as they did in their last previously reported years, the following will show the progress of the demand for Hospital accom- modations within the last twenty six years in the United States. Years. Patients admitted. Tears. Patients admitted, 1839 949 1848 3070 1840 999 1849 3082 1841 1145 1850 3144 1842 1105 1854 3491 1843 1634 1852 3736 1844 1725 1853 4151 1845 2004 1854 4243 1S46 2107 1855 4383 1847 2723 The above does not include those who are known to be removed from one Hospital to another, as those from Worcester to Taunton, in 1854. The number of patients under care and the average numbers during these years show a similar progress. Years. Patients admitted. 1830 332 1831 379 1832 481 1833 639 1634 456 1835 461 1836 545 1837 628 1838 697 19 The Commissioners have adopted a plan that includes all "the modem improvements, and will present to the world and the insane the best model of such an establishment which the intelligence and the benevolence of the present and past ages have produced. Without doubt, a Hospital might be built for less cost, than they will build this. But that would not be such as the present time demands nor such as is wanted here. The Commissioners, with that far reaching economy, that governs -every wise man or mechanic in the conduct of the farm or workshop, selected the best plan, because that will accomplish its object the most easily and effectually, and because the officers can heal more of their patients, and in a shorter period of time in such a house. There is then economy in such a selection, because it costs less for the daily management ; the duration of disease, and of residence in the establishment will be shorter and a greater number will be restored or made comfortable in such a Hospital as this is intended to be than one less suited to its purpose. But the restoration of any under the favoring influences of a good Hospital, who might otherwise have remained in permanent lunacy, the restoration of even a few to life and responsibility and usefulness, to the enjoyment and affections of home and friends, far outweighs all considerations of money, and demands that the Commis- sioners should give, as they are now giving you, the best institution the intelligence of the world has yet devised. DUTY OF THE PEOPLE IN RESPECT TO THE HOSPITAL. In this measure the State is one party and you, the people are another — and you are to co-operate together here. You must therefore agree and walk in harmony to effect one purpose, and receiving, and offering the opportunity of cure to, all of the insane that may, from time to time, appear among you, restore as many of them as possible to health and usefulness again. 20 The Hospital, however skillfully designed and constructed, can do nothing alone, there must be people to sustain it and patients to fill it. You then, you the people, have duties as well as the State, and these obligations will rest upon you, as long as the Hospital shall endure, or as long as you and your children and your children's children shall be subject to the terrible disease or diseases, which this house is established to cure or alleviate. INSANITY WILL APPEAR, FKOM AGE TO AGE. So far as the record of man goes backward, we know that insanity has been hi the world, and it is now found in every nation. It is more prevalent in the civilized than in the savage state. It is supposed to be more frequent in the highly than in the lesser cultivated nations — and we have it here as much as, and perhaps more than, most other countries. You have had it and you have it now among you. The late survey shows how abundantly it prevails here, and how much you need the means of relief.* Judging by the past, we cannot hope for a better condition in the future in this matter, unless the life and condition of mankind shall be changed. So far as the causes of mental maladies have been ascer- tained, they will not cease with the present year nor with the present generation. They belong to man and to society as * The following facts were received, by the Commission on Insanity, from the Physicians and others, who were acquainted with the condition of the Insane and Idiots in the four western counties in 1854. Coimties. Berkshire, Insane. 119 Fit subjects for a Hospital. 69 Violent Idiots. 9 Total subjects for a Hospital, 78 Franklin, 84 44 1 45 Hampden, Hampshire, 94 105 59 41 1 4 60 45 402 213 15. 228 21 now constituted, and they will continue to act as -they have acted, and the coming years do not seem to promise any less of their influence. Until we and you shall have studied out all these sources of mental disorder, and laid bare even its hidden fountains, and until w T e shall conform all our social and individual lives, our plans and our habits, our thoughts and our affections to the perfect law of health, we shall still be subject to this malady. If there is no change in the causes, there will be none in the results, and the next year will furnish as many new cases of insanity, in proportion to the population, as the last year, and the next generation will be as fruitful of this disease as that which now lives on the earth. NECESSITY OF SOME ACTION TO EELIEVE THE INSANE. It should naturally be our first object to prevent this great evil. But if we cannot do this, our next duty is to make it as light and as short as we can, and cure the insane as they, from thne to time shall have lost their reason. This is our present purpose, and for this we to-day lay the corner stone of this Hospital, for this the lands have been purchased and will be laid out and the house is to be built and finished, and for this we have every ground of hope, and abundant encouragement. We engage in no vain undertaking. We know how much has been done and how much can be done to relieve the maladies of the mind. The Legislature made no idle promise, when they said, that this Hospital will be very profitable to the State and its peo- ple, for insanity is one of the most curable of severe diseases. It is one of the most costly if neglected, for it continues through life, but the expense of restoration is comparatively small. Some insane persons, if left to themselves, will recover. But most of them require some aid, some change at least of habit and of life and often of condition, of circumstance and treatment, in order to secure their recovery, 22 THE INSANE MUST BE REMOVED FROM THE CAUSES OF THE MALADY. Maladies of the mind, like those of the body, require that the causes that produced them shall cease to act upon them. This is the first step in the cure of all diseases, and it is the dictate of common sense that governs most of mankind in their ordinary affairs. When one is excited with fever, we enjoin rest. When he has dysentery or dyspepsia, we suspend irritating food. When he has a cold, we keep him warm. Beside these manifest causes and palpable changes in the system, the sensations, in these diseases, are changed and the bodily sensibilities perverted so that those things, which are usually agreeable and proper in health, become not only injurious but offensive in sickness. Then the stomach cannot digest and the appetite revolts at, the food which was most digestible and nutritious and acceptable to the palate in other conditions, and that which would give pleasure and vigor in one case, would fan the flame of disease and nauseate the stomach in the other. In these cases, so far as we can understand or reach them, we suspend the action of, or remove the patient from, the sources of disease, and from the circumstances, that would keep it up. This is even more necessary in the management of the diseases of the mind than of the body, and yet it is not so easily accomplished. We can suspend and control the causes of, or the evil influences that bear upon, bodily disorder at home. We can find comfortable resting places for our fevered children in our own chambers. We can change our diet and discipline our appetites without going abroad ; we can rest from our labors, we can warm our flesh, in our own dwellings, and at the same time enjoy the companionship, the nursing care, and the affectionate sympathy of our families and dearest friends, 23 THE INSANE CANNOT BE USUALLY HEALED AT HOME. Unfortunately the diseases of the mind frequently find their origin in the circumstances and associations of home, in the cares and anxieties of business, in the relations of neighbor- hood, in the affairs of the town, in the movements of religious, political or other associations, in the habits or indulgences which are practiced. Or when the diseases are once estab- lished, they may be kept up by some of these. Moreover, the natural perceptions and moral sensibilities being disordered, the scenes, circumstances, and the persons, which are usually agreeable and favorable, hi health, become objects of aversion and sources of irritation and keep the disorder alive. In insanity, the husband frequently becomes suspicious of the wife and the wife of the husband, the parent of the child and the child of the parent, and even passion and hate may be manifested toward those who had been the objects of the most unquestioning confidence and tenderest affection. As the lunatic cannot be separated from these, while in his own house, he must go from them and generally among strangers. This is usually the first step and such patients are often sent to visit and stay among friends, or to travel abroad. This may sometimes be all that is necessary, but usually it is not enough, for the great susceptibility of the disorder requires a separation of the patient not only from the persons of his own family and friends, and the scenes and circumstances of his home, and neighborhood, and business, where his malady may have originated or grown, but he must be separated from all that would suggest them to him. These must not be presented to his mind by conversation, by letters, or by association with persons or things that are similar to them, or connected with them so as to bring back the old and perverted ideas and feelings. One who becomes deranged by or amidst the cares and perplexities of business, or domestic troubles, should not be with those who will talk about his affairs or home. 24 If he was overcome by political or religious excitement or other matter of absorbing interest, he would still be disturbed by talking or associating with those who are connected with them, and even by letters, books and papers that represent them. If his disorder was brought on by any especial study, he must not only give up the books that relate to it, but he must also avoid the persons who are interested in the same subjects and who would lead his mind back to dwell upon them. It is needful then, that the mentally disordered not only go away from home, but be placed where all the circumstances and associations are different from those to which he has been recently accustomed, and where all the influences that may reach him, can be controlled and modified, so that none but such as are favorable may affect him. Not only are the sensations and sensibilities but the judg- ment is also perverted. Things and circumstances have an unnatural and a wrong value and relation in the mind of the insane man. Seeing these through his disordered fancy, he estimates them falsely, he miscalculates and misjudges. Hence he cannot manage his own or other's affairs with his usual discretion. He may have strange plans, which are unfitted to the things and the world as they actually are, and he conse- quently may attempt to execute his designs, which from their very nature cannot or should not be accomplished. Added to these, there is often manifested in men who are disordered in the brain a self-confidence, amounting to wilful- ness that will not yield to the persuasion of others, and will not be influenced by the motives that govern the world. The natural friends and relations being generally first dis- trusted by the insane man, if they object to his plans or oppose his purposes, and endeavor to lead him to think and act as he did in health, he resists them, for they are the last ones to influence him. Other men who are not of his family 2b or even his friends, must assume this responsibility, and these must be strangers, and among such the lunatic must go for the best hope of restoration. Seeing then that it is usually requisite, that the insane should be thus removed, not only from their friends and home, and the scenes and circumstances to which they have lately been accustomed, but also from such as would suggest the topics and matters that may have deeply interested and over- come them, it is necessary to find a place of reparation where no unfavorable influence shall reach them. FEW PRIVATE FAMILIES CAN TAKE CAEE OF THE INSANE. There are few private families that can or will consent to take insane persons into their bosoms, and make the sacrifice of ease and comfort necessary to care for them. There are still fewer who have the skill to manage and the power to control them. There are very few that possess the requisite energy, the unwavering and conscientious firmness that never falters, and the discipline of temper that is never disturbed. There are few that are fitted for, and can do this work. There are many excitable and violent patients, who need a kind and degree of restraint which no private families have the means of applying. HOSPITALS THE PROPER PLACES FOR THE INSANE. But all the qualities and all the circumstances and facilities needed for the cure and the care of the insane belong to proper public institutions and they will be found in the Hospital that is here and now begun. In such establishments, the officers and the attendants are selected on account of their peculiar fitness for their work. They have the high intelli- gence, the scientific knowledge, and the moral endowments of gentleness, and firmness, and sympathy that are required, and they know how to occupy the diseased mind and lead it from its morbid fancies, and fix it upon cheerful raid satisfactory subjects. 2G The Buildings are made sufficiently strong to restrain the- willful and the violent. They are secluded from the inter- ference of the idle and the gaze of the curious. They are airy and cheerful for the despondent. They have all the arrange- ments and conveniencies for the comfort and the care of the sick and the feeble. They have abundant means of exercise, of labor and amusement, to meet all the varieties of feeling, temper and habit of the patients, and to draw them away from their insane delusions and diseased affections, and bring them back to the natural and healthy tone of thought and life. INSANITY CURABLE IN ITS EAELY STAGES. If insane persons are allowed to enjoy the means of healing- in the early stages of their disorder, within one year after it appears, about 75 to 90 per cent, can be restored to health. But in this class of maladies, time makes rapid havoc, and diminishes the chances of cure. If the means of healing are not tried within the first year, the ratio of cures is reduced perhaps a half in the second and still more in the third year, and when five years of neglect shall have elapsed, the hope of restoration is reduced to a mere accident, which no human skill can promise to accomplish. There are then the strongest motives that humanity and even economy can offer for the early and the proper care of the insane. Now, in the beginning of their disorder is their time to be restored, and the human mind to be saved from destruction ; and with these grounds of hope if the means are used and with the probable loss and suffering if the time of healing is permitted to pass unimproved, it is natural and reasonable to suppose, that none would be neglected, none would be left to sink into permanent insanity, none allowed to remain their life-long years, in the gloomy darkness or the painful excitements of mental derangement. 27 INSANITY, LIKE THE COMMON EVILS OP LIFE, SHOULD BE MET AND EEMOVED PROMPTLY. Most men manage the common affairs of life with sufficient wisdom. They feel it incumbent on them to repair the damage which time or accidents cause in the material things which they use or possess. They mend the breaches in their houses, shops, and other buildings and in their fences ; they clear their pathways of obstructions, and then* fields of weeds. They keep their machines and their implements, their car- riages and even then* meanest vehicles in good order. Common prudence dictates this, and public opinion demands it. And they feel a reproach of conscience and a blot on their good name if they neglect it. All this is well done, but there are other things of still greater importance to our comfort and happiness and our well-being on earth, that should not be left undone. The human body, where man's spirit dwells, the human brain, the especial seat of the intellect, is liable to many -causes of injury, and may need to be watched and repair- ed, and saved from abiding loss. As this is of more value than many houses, and of more worth than all the material things we use, there is so much more reason for watching for its least injury or decay and saving it from greater suffering. If we show such diligence in regard to the broken dwelling or implement, how much more readily should we repair the broken intellect and relieve our friends frorn the destroying spirit that may have come upon themi If we feel it a good ground of reproach, when the breach in our dwellings or the rust on our tools is allowed to increase so far that reparation is impossible, what shall be said of those who suffer the minds of their own relations or neighbors to waste aw T ay, until no human art or effort can restore them ! If your houses, your fields, your fences, your machinery, even your vehicles are worthy of your vigilant watchfulness and your prompt interference to stay the progress of any 28 destructive influence upon them, at whatever cost within their value, how great should be your vigilance to detect and prevent the growth of any blight or disease upon the brain of your parent or child, or brother or friend ? And how much more energetic and vigorous should be your exertions to save their precious minds and affections from present death ! If the fallen house, the broken fence, the rusty implement, the weedy field are monuments of the improvidence of the proprietor or occupant, how much more should neglected and permanent insanity be deemed a monument of the faithless- ness or inhumanity of those who should have provided the means of healing ! The advantage of attending to evils early, when they are comparatively light and easily removed, has become a proverb, which all wise men intend to put in practice, in their common affairs. The same economical view may be applied to the care of the insane. It costs comparatively little to cure them ; but the cost of supporting them through a life of disease is immense.* Add to this the difference between the suffering and the anguish of friends, the harrowing anxiety and the ceaseless * The average time required for recovery of all the patients who were restored, was in the Worcester Hospital, five months and three days and in the Mc Lean Asylum, five months and two days. These include the old as well as the new cases. If all these patients had been placed under proper care early, within one or two months of the attack, the average residence, or period necessary for cure, would have been less. The average length of insane life of persons incurably deranged is — Malm. Females. 20 years of age, 21 .31 years, 28.66 years. 30 « 20.64 " 26.33 « 40 » 17.65 « 21.53 « 50 « 13.93 " 17.67 " 60 " 11.91 " 12.51 » 70 " 9.15 » 8.87 » As a matter of mere economy, the difference is very largely in favor of curing the insane. 29 care on account of their relatives when insane, and the Ml enjoyment and sympathy, the love and encouragement which these give when in health, and there is no measure to the motives that demand that the lunatic shall be allowed to enjoy the earliest and the best opportunities of being restored. THE INSANE MUST BE ATTENDED TO BY THEIR FRIENDS OR OTHERS. Whatever may be the cause of one's mental derangement, he cannot heal himself, — nor can he take the proper measures for this purpose. He is and must be, in the hands of others, his family, his friends, his townsmen, or the public authorities, for means of relief. Then they alone are responsible for his cure. And if he is not put in the way of it, the fault is their's, not his. It may have been an unwise question to be asked in olden time, whether it were the fault of a man who could not see, or of his parents, that he was- blind ; but if, when the means of curing mental disorder shall be provided and freely offered to all, any one shall become insane and remain permanently so, without enjoying these opportunities of relief, no one need ask, whether he or his friends were the sinners, in that he is enduring and will endure insanity for life. EVERY INSANE PERSON SHOULD BE SENT AT ONCE TO A HOSPITAL. It is then a reasonable expectation, that a cultivated, pros- perous and generous community like this, will see that every one who may hereafter be bereft of his reason, shall enjoy the means of restoration, in this Hospital, when it shall be ready for occupancy, and that the coming years and generations in this region shall present no more cases of insanity that shall have become old and incurable, because the friends or the public authorities neglected to send them here to be restored. If however, the disease is one of the small minority that cannot be healed by human art, or if the lunatic shall have 30 been neglected until the hour of healing is past, and if then his disorder rage, and he be violent or dangerous to himself or others, or even if he be excitable and troublesome, then the obligation will still remain to place him where he may be soothed and calmed, guided and restrained. By these means, the sane and healthy community will have discharged its duty toward those whose minds are enfeebled or unsound, and the painful consequences of these terrible maladies of the brain will be reduced to their lowest decree. SOME CAUSES OF INSANITY MAY BE ASCERTAINED AND PREVENTED. It is thus seen that much may be expected of this Hospital in restoring diseased minds to health, but this is not all. If this Institution stop here — if its officers do nothing more than remove evils that may have been created, and only heal such as are sent to them ; if they teach no lesson of warning and the people receive no instruction from them, if none of the causes of insanity be searched out and the world be put on its guard against none of the dangerous" places and pit-falls into which their brethren may have fallen, and the errors that may have overcome the weak and susceptible among them, if the causes of these disorders be still allowed to prevail and overpower men's brains with undiminished energy, and if in- sanity be reproduced from year to year and one set of patients be healed and restored to their friends, only to make room for another set who shall have fallen under the same destructive influences, — if these are to be the successive events of the coming years and the coming ages, then this Hospital will not have fulfilled its whole mission or the people will not have learned and practiced their whole lesson. It is not to be denied, that many cases of insanity are as yet traceable to no assignable sources. Some are probably due to many causes — a little waste of life here — a little misapplication of force there — some error in self-management — some excess — some neglect — some undue indulgence — some external injury — all these put together may break down one's 31 mental health as a complication of misfortunes and indiscre- tions break down one's estate, and insanity is the consequence in the one case as failure of commercial position is in the other. It is sometimes difficult to discriminate between the causes and the consequences of mental disturbance, not ^infrequently certain eccentricities or peculiarities of conduct are suddenly manifested and supposed to be the causes of the malady, whereas they may be the consequences of the disorder of the functions of the brain, — merely a part of the phenomena of the disease itself. Yet, notwithstanding these difficult and unfathomable cases, many can unquestionably be traced to their origin, and their causes pointed" out and the world be put on their guard against them. Some, perhaps many of these causes are within the control of man ; they can and will be prevented, if the world avail themselves of the warning. Something has been already done in this work, but there is no reason to suppose, that this philosophy has reached its uttermost bound, or that man's wisdom can search no farther and find no more causes of mental disorder secretly working in the heart of society or openly rioting among mankind. It is a part of the work of this and of all similar institu- tions, which are entrusted with the management of these ter- rible maladies, to search more and deeper into the field where they are found, to endeavor to find the hidden springs whence they flow, to see where they are, how they operate and what hold they have upon the people, and then, from time to time, to lift the voice of warning and show the world, how they may escape some of the dangers that beset then mental con- stitution. Dives prayed that Lazarus might go up from the dead and warn his brethren of the dangers which had ensnared and destroyed him ; but no such messenger was allowed, because they already had Moses and the Prophets to teach them. This boon is not denied to you. You have not only the teachings of the wise and faithful men of science, who have examined and will continue to examine the diseases of the mind and their causes; but your brethren have arisen and 32 will continue to arise from their mental death to point out to you the way in which they were misled and warn you to save yourselves from the customs and habits, the errors and indul- gences which proved fatal to their intellectual and spiritual health. If then these teachers faithfully study and preach, and if you and your children and your children's children will hear and obey, you and they, from time to time, may close some of the fountains and stay the progress of the desolating evil more and more from generation to generation, insanity may be gradually diminished, and in the course of ages, as man shall become more and more perfect in his obedience to God and in his faithfulness to the conditions of his being on earth, this class of maladies may be perhaps rarely or never known among men. SOCIAL DUTY OF THE PEOPLE TO THE HOSPITAL. There is one more point, in connection with this new Institution, which is worthy of consideration. The Commonwealth creates the Hospital. The Government will supply its wants and appoint successive boards of trustees to watch over it, and suitable officers and assistants to manage it, and look after the patients who may be entrusted to it, and all the interests that may belong to it. Beside these, there are other duties that will rest upon you. There are important influences within your control that may materially affect its comfort and its usefulness, that may strew its path with flowers or with thorns, may smooth its onward passage or cover its road with stumbling-blocks. To you, the people of Northampton, of Hampshire and Berkshire, of Hampden and Franklin, its social interests are entrusted. It is placed in your midst and mainly for your benefit. You and your children will first and principally enjoy its merciful influences. It is not unreasonable then for the State, after having created and established it with her treasure, to hope that it will, in return, be cherished and sustained by 33 your affectionate confidence, your generous sympathy and abiding encouragement. Most of the diseased inmates will be your friends or from among you, and you will be expected to visit them or be separated from them, as their good may require. But the rooms and the halls of this Institution, like all other cham- bers of sickness, cannot be freely opened to the mere gaze of curiosity. The patients are sometimes excitable and may be violent, and therefore require restraint. They may suffer from an excessive sensibility and shrink from the sight of strangers. They may have the common irritability in respect to their friends and their homes and be disturbed or distressed by the sight of any person or mention of any thing connected with them, and therefore need, that none of these, not even their dearest relatives visit or even be suggested to them. If the intercourse with friends and all social influences are not con- trolled and all that is unfavorable is not suspended, the administration of medicine, and the remedial measures con- nected with the Hospital treatment will be unavailing, and often fail of their intended effect. The physician here, as in ordinary diseases, must be the sole judge of the degree and the kind of restraint or discipline that is best for the patient's health. He alone is to determine, how much intercourse with friends, how much of the associa- tions of home and how much correspondence they can bear. The movements of the Hospital are therefore not to be controlled by external influences, nor even by the generous and tender affections of anxious relatives or friends, nor yet can they be open to public gaze as a common exhibition. But all is to be managed by the government within, for the sole purpose of healing the diseases of your friends, neighbors and others who may be suffering from mental derangement and placed there to enjoy the beneficial effects of Hospital treatment. 34 Leaving then the managers of this Institution to arrange and order its life and conduct, in the minutest detail, as the patient's good may demand, it is yours to enjoy its advantages, to profit by its work. It is yours to nurture its good name, to gather for it friends, to resist and disarm calumny even in its very hud, to feel assured and to give assurance, that all is right in its internal administration, although you may not see it with your own eyes at all times. One of the great elements of the peaceful and happy prosperity of the Hospital at Worcester has been the strong hold it has had from the beginning, on the people of that city and county and the generous sympathy and unmeasured confidence they have, on all occasions, given to it. You of this town and these counties can and you will do much for the prosperity and the comfort of this new Institu- tion. You can cheer, support and strengthen it, you can pour the oil of joy on its machinery and give the power of confi- dence to its operations, and, we doubt not, you will do so, and then this Hospital will ever have reason to rejoice, that it is placed in the midst of an enlightened and a generous community, 35 After the address by Dr. Jarvis, Charles Delano, from the citi- zens' Committee of Arrangements, announced to the audience that as they were shortly to proceed to the site of the Hospital, where the ceremonies would be in other hands, the Committee had thought it might not be uninteresting to listen to a brief specification of such tokens of the present generation, as the Committee, through the courtesy of the Hospital Commissioners, had been permitted to de- posit under the corner stone of that edifice. That in availing them- selves of that permission, they had secured several printed pamphlets and documents commemorative of past and current events, among which were the following : — Eighth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Smith Charities. The Northampton Courier of July 1, 1856. Hampshire Gazette, January 15 and July 1, 1856; Sept. 14„1796; May 24, 1797; April 25, 179S; June 29, 1803. Annual Report of School Committee of Northampton, for year ending March 1, 185G. Annual Report of the Selectmen of Northampton, for the year ending Feb. 1, 1856. Dr. Allen's Second Century Address at Northampton. The Mount Holyoke Hand Book and Tourist's Guide for North- ampton and vicinity, by John Eden. Printed placards, notes and papers used in perfecting the arrange- ments for the celebration of the day, including a full list of the names of the Committee of Arrangements. In addition to these documents, Mr. Delano said that, acting upon the pleasing, and as they trusted, not altogether illusory or fanciful idea, that the life even of so humble and unpretending a member of the great body politic as our own well-beloved Northampton is des- tined, in the persons of^those Who come after us, to be immortal, and that future generations will dwell with the fondness and affection of children upon every memente of their fathers, the Committee have 36 felt prompted by the opportunity now open to them, to transmit, under their own hand, a communication, addressed directly to their descendants of another age. And he here produced the manuscript about to be inclosed in a sealed envelope, superscribed " for poster- ity." Mr. D. said he had only time to read the commencement and conclusion of this communication, and to state briefly the outline of its intermediate contents, and then proceeded to read, as follows: — " The citizens of Northampton, assembled on this Fourth day of July, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, on the occasion of the laying of the corner stone of the third Lunatic Hospital of Massachusetts ; to their children's children who in after ages shall break the seal of this memorial, send greeting: — " Foreseeing how soon the time must come when all personal traces of the present generation will have faded from the recollection of men ; and not presuming that the parts we have borne in the maintenance and advancement of this our cherished municipal inher- itance, will be commemorated by any more public chronicle, we have sought a recess here within the walls of this newly rising edifice wherein to deposit this humble record of ourselves. " Northampton still stands where two centuries since her founders planted her, still retaining those primitive and simple forms of municipal government which our fathers used before us — and which are the purest type of New England popular Sovereignty. " Our population at this hour of writing embraces six thousand four hundred and fifty-five souls, over one thousand of whom are on the list of voters, and entitled to the full exercise of the rights of suffrage. " The highest executive authority belonging to the town govern- ment is now, as in the beginning, lodged in the Board of " Selectmen" and the making and un-making of these officers at the annual town elections illustrates the jealous watchfulness of our freemen over the conduct of their public servants. " The Board of Selectmen for the present year is composed as follows : — Azariah Clapp, Chairman, Justin Thayer, Samuel L. Par- sons, Luke Lyman, Charles Strong." 37 [Then follows a narrative of the names and denomination of the different religious societies in town, the clergy settled and unsettled, professional men and prominent citizens of Northampton who still survive, whether in active life or in retirement. The rail roads in town, how long in operation, the market value of the stock of each. The names of the principal manufacturing establishments in town, by whom principally owned or conducted, and the amount of capital employed. The names of the first Board of Trustees recently com- missioned for the third State Lunatic Hospital at Northampton. A reference to the origin and period of operation of the Smith Charities, names of the Board of Trustees with a statement of the amount of the total accumulated funds. A printed list of all the officers and members of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial departments of the government of the Commonwealth for the current year, County officers, Banks and Bank officers, Agricultural Socie- ties, Insurance Companies and their officers, &c. The name of the person believed to be the oldest surviving male inhabitant of North- ampton, also the oldest female inhabitant, with a brief personal notice of each. Also allusion to the individual believed to be the youngest inhabitant at the time of preparing this memorial and something of his antecedents. After a variety of other statistics more or less in detail the document thus concludes :] — "And now having thus indicated from what slender beginnings you, our posterity, are to work out that rare destiny which we doubt not the future has in store for you, what wait we for but to breathe those tender aspirations in your behalf, which like good gifts none know so well how to bestow as parents upon their children. Our heart's desire and prayer then is, that all the treasures of health) happiness, and prosperity, which, for two centuries of municipal existence have been vouchsafed to this heritage and home of your fathers may belong to you and yours unto the latest generation. " May the greatness and glory of our common country, which to-day completes eighty years of independent sovereignty, be diminished by no untoward cause, but more and more be advanced until she stands before the nations of the earth the first in civilization, the last and least in the exercise of coercive power. And our Beloved Massa- chusetts ! as it has been her wont from infancy to the present time to employ herself as she now and here employs herself to-day, so in all time to come may she continue to rear upon her bosom edifices 38 • dedicated to Religion, Learning and Charity, trusting to works like these and to the justice of history for the vindication of her fame. Farewell." In addition to the above, the Commissioners placed under the corner stone the following documents : — Boston Post. Boston Daily Journal. Christian Register. Boston Daily Bee. Salem Register. Boston Daily Times. Gloucester Telegraph. Dr. Jarvis' Report on Insanity and Idiocy in Massachusetts. Copy of Plans and Specifications of the Northampton Hospital. Building Commissioners' first Report. Report of Special Committee of Legislature appointed to inquire into the expediency of continuing the building, 1856. Copy of Springfield Republican. Newburyport Herald. New York Express. Christian Watchman and Reflector. Report of Committee on Charitable Institutions to the Legisla- ture, 1856. On a silver plate deposited within the box, is the following inscrip- tion : — The Corner Stone of an Edifice for the Third State Lunatic Hospital ; Established under Act of the Legislature of Massachusetts ; Passed May 21st, 1855 ; Laid by the Most Worshipful Winslow Lewis, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge, on the fourth of July, 1856, the 80th anniversary of the Declaration of American Inde- pendence. Henry J. Gardner, Governor of the Commonwealth. Com- missioners, Luther V. Bell, Henry W. Benchley, Samuel S. Standley. After the exercises at the church were concluded, a procession, composed of Military and Fire Companies, Masonic Lodges and citizens, was formed. When it had reached the Hospital grounds, the ceremonies were opened with prayer by Rev. Wm. A. Stearns, President of Amherst College, and the Corner Stone laid by the Masonic Grand Locke of Massachusetts 39 COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS, W. F. Arnold, Osmyn Baker, C. W. Braman, J. H. Butler, Henry Childs, William R. Clapp, Merritt Clark, William Clark, Lucius Clark, Christopher Clarke, B. E. Cook, William W. Cutler, Isaac Damon, Jr., David S. Damon, Addison Daniels, Edward Daniels, Samuel Day, Charles Delano, Cornelius Delano, John Deming, James Dunlap, Oscar Edwards, J. H. Fowle, M. M. French, Henry S. Gere, C. K. Hawks, H. Halsted, Winthrop Hillyer, O. A. Hillman, H. I. Hodges, John Hubbard, Harvey Kirkland, Daniel Kingsley, J. S. Lathrop, Caleb Loud, Ahira Lyman, J. H. Lyman, Luke Lyman, William R. Marsh, Thomas Musgrave, Lyman Metcalf, John G. Musgrave, Samuel L, Parsons, I. S. Parsons, Spencer Par- sons, A. P. Peck, Charles S. Pratt, Charles Smith, Milo J. Smith, Charles Strong, Henry Strong, 2d, Justin Thayer, Daniel Thompson, James Thompson, James R. Trumbull, J. D. Wells, Charles White, Morris E. White, L. I. Washburn, Roland Weller, A. S. Wood, George F. Wright. Joseph I. West, Chairman, Samuel A. 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