Our State Hospital at Northampton cost, ten years ago, $300,000, and would now cost $450,000, or more. It is not equal to the County Asylums of England. In my opinion, it would be impossible for any less sum than the estimate of the architect for the Boston Hospital, to erect a building embodying the best ideas of the present time; and anything short of that would neither be satisfactory, nor economical, nor creditable to a great city. Truly yours, GEO. C. S. CHOATE. CITY OF BOSTON. BOSTON, 14th September, 1871. TO THE HONORABLE THE CITY COUNCIL : Gentlemen: On the order of the City Council, requesting information and suggestions from the Board of Directors for Public Institutions, in relation to the proposed alterations and improvements in the House of Correction, the Almshouse, and the Hospital for the Insane, the undersigned, a member of said Board, begs leave respectfully to submit the following statement: The subject which has been longest under consideration, and to which the attention of the government has been most persistently called, is the want of improved accommodations for the insane who have a legal settlement in the City of Boston. That the present accommodations at South Boston are inadequate and unsuitable is generally admitted. The only question is in regard to the manner in which suitable provision for the care and maintenance of its insane should be made by the city. The undersigned has heretofore stated quite fully the objections to the location of a hospital on the "Winthrop Farm," so called; and has submitted the opinions of many of the leading physicians in this city in support of those objections. [See City Document 107, 1869.] There are also objections, which have not been particularly dwelt upon, to the building which the City Council is urged to erect on this A structure, erected in accordance with the plans now before the government, would practically prevent the application of any improvements upon the old system of herding a large number of insane persons together in one vast establishment. The following extracts will sufficiently show the views of those best qualified to speak on this point: Dr. Bemis, Superintendent of the Lunatic Hospital at Worcester, states, in his Thirty-seventh Annual Report [Public Document No. 23, 1869], that "the first consideration of importance is the proper location of the buildings for an insane asylum. The site should be elevated, and, if possible, on a sunny slope, and by no means in a cold or exposed situation. The buildings should be mainly of two stories. They should consist of, first, a hospital proper, containing every facility, in its construction, for classification, seclusion, and treatment, which ingenuity can devise, or skill create. This will be best obtained by the erection of separate blocks or wings at some little distance from each other, connected by light, airy passages or corridors, under which shall be a continuous basement. This centre group of blocks or wings should be of sufficient capacity to accommodate, in the best possible manner, about one-third of the whole number of patients destined to be managed and controlled in the whole establishment. The remaining two-thirds should be accommodated in houses of smaller capacity, built for the purpose, on the grounds of the institution, and within its enclosures." [pp. 76-78.] Dr. Choate, formerly Superintendent of the Lunatic Hospital at Taunton, states, in a communication to the Board of State Charities, that "several detached buildings, under one organization, are now deemed to be the most satisfactory means of providing for the insane poor, as combining economy with the most perfect classification possible." [Fifth Report Board of State Charities, p. 120.] The Trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital, at Worcester, |