tary of State. In obedience to a resolution of the House of Representatives a schedule of these notes was presented a few weeks afterwards, and printed as a public document. The entire sum was found to amount to fifteen hundred and six dollars, payable partly in cash, and a part in labor and material*. At this session an appropriation of $5,000 was made from the general fund.

The Secretary of State at this session presented his first annual report, "conveying statistical information in reference to the insane, blind, and deaf and dumb in the State, prepared in accordance with a joint resolution, approved April 3d, 1848." These statistics, studied at this time, have great value. When condensed and arranged in tabular form, the facts collected are as follows:

During the following year the views of the Trustees seem to have become greatly modified; even the few opportunities for observation presented and the very little attention they were enabled to give to the subject were sufficient to convince them,

Notes to the amount of three hundred dollars are still in possession of the Institution.

that the want in the State, they were proposing to meet was one of far greater magnitude than they had anticipated; that the quantity of land which had been set apart was entirely inadequate, and that to erect an asylum of the diminutive size at first contemplated would be "injudicious in the extreme." Their report was filled with valuable information, and facts were presented, establishing the urgent and pressing necessity of public provision for the insane. They recommended the sale of the ten acres at Kalamazoo, and the purchase of a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in its immediate vicinity; and without taking the responsibility of selection, laid before the Legislature the plans of several eastern asylums and urged a more liberal appropriation.

1853--1854.

In his inaugural message, session of 1853, Governor McClelland says: "Nothing was done with the Asylums for the Deaf and Dumb, and Blind, and for the Insane, by the last Legislature. The means heretofore appropriated are inadequate. None of our citizens are more deserving of your sympathies, and they cannot be too strongly commended to your favorable notice."

The

The Trustees proposing to sell the ten acres within the village limits of Kalamazoo, had in the meanwhile purchased the very desirable location whereon the Institution now stands. tract had nearly every requisite for the purpose-a fine view, facilities for drainage, water supply, seclusion and heathfulness. It contained one hundred and sixty acres and was purchased at the rate of eight dollars per acre. The portions in the immediate neighborhood of the proposed site of the building had been cleared and underbrushed, and enclosed by a fence.

On the 12th of February the following gentlemen were elected Trustees: Sheldon McKnight, Bela Hubbard, P. J. Spaulding, Israel Kellogg and Joseph B. Walker.

The sum of $23,000 was appropriated from the general fund, of which $10,000 in 1853 and a like amount in 1854 were to be used by the Trustees as should become "necessary in the con

struction of buildings for the Asylum for the Insane." The Trustees were authorized "to sell and convey"* the ten acres donated at Kalamazoo, and clothed with power requisite to receive proposals and make contracts. Of this sum appropriated, the Trustees report $17,487 48 expended in preliminary work, laying the foundation of the center building, carrying up the walls two stories, and in purchase of material.

1855--1856.

The report of the Trustees presented to the Legislature of 1855, holds a very creditable place in the documentary literature of public provision for the insane. Three years afterwards, a special committee of the legislative assembly of another State ordered its almost entire republication, and it has thus served a double purpose. Its recommendations were fully endorsed

in the gubernatorial valedictory, but received legislative endorsedorsement only in part.

The sum of $67,000 was appropriated at this session. During the biennial period following, the Trustees completed the brickwork of the centre building, painted and glazed it, slated the roof, finished the cupola, and stuccoed the front. They also laid the foundation and carried up the walls of the south wing two stories, and roofed the extreme division. The estimated value of material on hand at the close of the biennial year was $3,800; there was also due upon contracts an equal sum.

II. History of the Biennial Period immediately Preceding the Organization.

1857--1858.

In 1857, the connection previously existing between the institutions at Flint and Kalamazoo, obviously unnatural and mutually disadvantageous, was severed, and a distinct Board of Trustees appointed to each. With wise forethought, in order to secure to the Asylum the full benefit of acquired experience

*This tract of land was disposed of at $128 por acre, and the proceeds of the sale, $1,280, paid to the acting commissioner of the asylum at Fiint, and acknowledged in his next report.

in the Board, the terms of office of the several members were made to terminate at different periods. At the same time, however, in the Asylum for the Insane, any previously acquired experience in the Board was not made available by reappointment, since an entirely new Board was named to take charge of its interests. If from this circumstance it should unfortunately be inferred, that there existed any suspicion of want of wisdom or fidelity in the management of affairs by the previous Board, it will be observed, with great satisfaction, that their action was fully approved by their successors, as appears by the following extract from their report to the Legislature of 1859:

"We would express our entire approval of the plans adopted and the course pursued by our predecessors. From the knowledge we have been able to acquire in reference to the peculiar architectural requirements of such institutions, we are convinced that the building is very perfectly adapted to the purposes of its erection; and we find that it loses nothing when compared with even the more expensive asylums in sister States. The patients' rooms are large and airy; the corridors are spacious and cheerful; the sitting and work rooms are commodious and well lighted. When finished, the facilities for separating the various classes will be very complete. In fine, nothing, as far as the building is concerned, which could contribute to the comfort and restoration of the inmates seems to have been overlooked.

"They have given a thoroughly professional basis to the institution, by adopting, for their rule of action, the embodied experience of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Asylums,' as expressed in a series of propositions on the construction of asylums, unanimously adopted at a convention held in Philadelphia, May, 1851. By the early appointment of a medical officer, with the view of having the building erected so far under his supervision as to secure his approbation when finished, all capricious modifications and changes in plan and policy have been avoided."

The people of the State had already become somewhat impatient for the completion of the Asylum. The condition of the insane of the dependent class was wretched in the extreme, and a few instances of unusual neglect and abuse in jails and poorhouses, had in certain sections fully awakened public sympathy. The condition of the insane of the middle and even wealthier classes was but little better. Through want of adequate means, many of the former were cut off from all curative assistance, and the latter were not unfrequently forced to travel from one asylum to another, and at each denied the relief they anxiously sought. In one case, the wife of an honored citizen of our State, refused admission at Utica on account of the crowded condition of that asylum, sank from exhaustion on her way to an institution still further eastward, and died upon the benches of a railway station.

The members of the new Board, Messrs. Gorham, Woodbury and Montague were deeply impressed by these facts, by letters coming from every section of the State, by the remonstrances of county officers and by personal appeals. They seem to have appreciated the want very fully, and resolved to meet it as far as possible by the early completion of the portion of the building in progress. They directed their efforts accordingly, and urged forward their work with great energy and determination.

On the 11th of February, 1858, the centre building, by an unfortunate accident, was burned to the ground. This depressing calamity interposed serious obstacles to the attainment of their purpose, but still steadily keeping it in view, the limited means at their disposal were devoted by the Trustees to the completion of the remaining portion, and they had the satisfaction of being able to report to the Legislature of 1859, that they had succeeded in nearly completing rooms for the reception of ninety patients of one sex.

The progress of construction during this period was as follows: In addition to work in the centre building, subsequently consumed, the extreme division of the south wing was plastered, glazed and partially floored; the walls of the second