need not exceed two hundred. The land should be of good quality, and capable of a proper division into mowing, pasture, and tillage. The grounds around the site of the Hospital should be of a description that will admit of their being put into a high state of tasteful cultivation. A large quantity of good land is required, to furnish ample space for the Hospital and its buildings, and pleasure-grounds; - for the security of retirement and quietude;-for raising a large and valuable portion of the supplies of the establishment; for sustaining the horses, cows, and other stock that will be needed; -for the rambling exercises of the patients, and the employment of many of them, a kind of employment which experience has shown to be the best that can be practised. Insane patients, shut up in halls, or confined in cells, are restless, discontented, and unhappy; but, suffered to go into the gardens, that should be connected with an Asylum, and to engage in out-door labor, they soon become cheerful and happy, and, in no long time, healthy and sane. Appreciating the confidence reposed in them, they exercise their powers of self-control, and show that such confidence is not misplaced; and thus they are brought within the sphere of their accustomed activity; -old associations return; -one illusion, and then another, is dispelled; and, presently, the empire of reason is completely restored.

Again: An abundant, daily supply of pure water is an indispensible requisite to be secured in selecting a site for an Insane Hospital. An Asylum for two hundred and fifty patients needs four or five thousand gallons of water a day; and it should be in such proximity to the Hospital, that, by a steady water power, it may be forced into reservoirs in the highest part of the building, from which it can easily be distributed through the establishment.

Such being, in the judgment of the Committee, the prominent requisites for the site of an Asylum, they have visited and viewed, together, or by sub-committee, locations in Northampton, South Hadley, Amherst, and Hatfield, in Hampshire County;-Pittsfield, Lenox, Stockbridge, and Great Barrington, in Berkshire County; - Greenfield, in Franklin County;-Bridgewater, Middleborough, and Wareham, in Plymouth County.

In several of these towns, they have viewed very eligible sites, sites that can be purchased at a reasonable price;-that furnish all the requisites of good horticultural and farming landan abundant supply of water-charming scenery and proximity to moral and intelligent people. Should the Legislature adopt our recommendation, and provide for its execution, it will be no difficult matter, with the information we have collected, to decide upon the site for the Asylum, in some one of the above named beautiful towns. There are, doubtless, other towns in which may be found other sites equally eligible. As the Legislature have not passed upon the main proposition, that of erecting another Asylum; and as no intimation was given of their mind touching the section of the State that should be selected,

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whether in the Western or Eastern, the Committee deem it their duty to present the considerations, which lie in their own minds, in favor of locating the proposed Asylum west of Worcester County, and, also, those in favor of locating it east of that County; leaving it with the Legislature, either to decide in what Section of the State it shall be located, or to clothe a commission with definite and final power, on this point, as the wisdom of that honorable body shall dictate.

The reasons for locating the asylum in the western section of the State, are important, and should receive due consideration. Worcester County, being well accommodated by the hospital located in her new city, need not be taken into this consideration. The four counties, west of Worcester County, to wit, Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin and Berkshire, have claims that they may justly urge.

First. Those counties are remote from the hospital at Worcester. The centre of Hampden, the nearest of the four, is some fifty miles from Worcester. The centres of the other three counties are from seventy to one hundred miles distant.

Second. The people of those western counties are subject to serious inconveniences, in transporting patients to the hospital at Worcester, and also in visiting them, as they may have occasion to do, from time to time. These inconveniences are felt more deeply in those towns not in the near neighborhood of the Western and Connecticut river rail-roads.

Third. Those western counties furnish sites for an insane asylum, in several favorably situated towns, where are found all the prime requisites, as to good land-pure water-healthy atmosphere-delightful scenery, and moral and cultivated society. In these particulars, no part of the State can furnish superior advantages.

Fourth. The expense of founding and sustaining an insane asylum in the western section would probably be less than in any other section of the Commonwealth. The price of farmsof building materials--of mechanical and agricultural laborof domestic produce, and of professional and other supervisory and auxiliary service, in conducting an asylum, would be less in the western, than in the eastern section of the State.

In these four particulars, the reasons for a western location are entitled to deliberate and dispassionate consideration.

On the other part, the reasons for locating the asylum in the eastern or the south-eastern section of the state, are important, and should be calmly pondered.

Provision is made for a portion of the insane, in Essex County, at Ipswich. A portion of Middlesex and Suffolk counties, also, are provided for at East Cambridge, Somerville and South Boston. Suffolk, and parts of Middlesex and Norfolk, moreover, are not remote from Worcester, and may be well accommodated there.

In looking at the sections of the Commonwealth east of Worcester, therefore, our attention may properly be directed to the six south-eastern counties, to wit, Norfolk, Bristol, Plymouth, Barnstable, Nantucket, and Duke's. The reasons for locating the proposed asylum in one of these six counties, are :

First. Their remoteness from Worcester. The people of these counties, with the exception of a part of Norfolk, must travel through Boston or Providence, to reach Worcester. The distance of Worcester from the centres of five of these counties, is from seventy to one hundred and fifty miles.

Second. If the proposed asylum be located in the southeastern section, and the lunatics of this section be withdrawn from Worcester, the western counties, including the county of Worcester, will be better accommodated there, than they are

now. But if it be located in the Western section, these southeastern counties cannot be accommodated, even at Worcester, inasmuch as their lunatics, with those of Worcester County, are too numerous to find accommodations there, although those of the western counties should be withdrawn.

Third. The excess of population, in these six south-eastern counties, over the population of the four western counties, furnishes another important reason for locating the asylum here. The population of these six counties, (which has increased, since 1840, in a greater ratio, probably, than that of the western counties,) is now but little short of one-third of the whole population of the State. But, in speaking of population, we will take the census of 1840. According to that census, these six south-eastern counties have a population of two hundred and six thousand one hundred and ninety-five. The four western counties have one hundred and thirty-eight thousand eight hundred and fifteen; a difference of sixty-seven thousand three hundred and eighty-eight, in favor of the six counties. This excess of population is equal to the population of any two of the three counties on Connecticut river.

Fourth. The number of lunatics in these six counties, over that of the four western counties, furnishes another important reason for locating the asylum here.

The four western counties have, at this time, two hundred and sixty-two lunatics. The six south-eastern counties have four hundred and thirty-two lunatics-an excess of one hundred and seventy.

Fifth. Another reason for locating the asylum here, is furnished by the larger number of admissions to the State Hospital at Worcester, during the whole period of its operation, down to the close of the year 1847. During that period, four hundred and thirty-six patients were received at the Hospital from the four western counties. During the same period, seven hundred and eighteen patients were received from the six south-eastern counties an excess of two hundred and eighty-two. During that same period, the nine counties, east of Worcester county, sent to the Hospital at Worcester, one thousand six hundred and eighty-four patients.

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Sixth. The location of the asylum in one of these southeastern counties;-say at Middleborough, or Bridgewater, will accommodate, not only these counties, but the whole nine counties, east of Worcester county, better than a western location. These nine counties comprise more than three times the amount of population, and more than four times the number of lunatics, found in the four western counties. Middleborough and Bridgewater are nearer Boston than Worcester, and equally accessible. Railroads not only run through them, but concentrate within both of them.

Seventh. Locations are found in this south-eastern section, which, (if they are not as splendid and picturesque as the west presents,) are as favorable in the essential requisites of good land, pure water, salubrity of climate, pleasant scenery, and moral and intellectual society.

In regard to the expenses of founding and sustaining an asylum, in this south-eastern section, it may be remarked that this location has the advantage over the west, in the purchase of all foreign articles; which, added to the expenses of travelling from the east to the west, provided the asylum be placed in the west, would nearly or quite equal, in the end, the pecuniary preference of the west.

The reasons, occurring to the Committee, in favor of the two locations, are thus briefly stated, that they may receive due consideration, and have their proper weight in the ultimate disposition of this part of the subject.

5. THE PLAN AND COST OF THE PROPOSED ASYLUM.

The Committee were directed, (if they should find it expedient to recommend the erection of a new asylum,) to present a PLAN and estimate of its COST and equipment.

They deemed this part of their duty of great importance. An Insane Asylum for the State must receive all classes of patients; the high and the low-the rich and the poor-the renowned and the friendless. The most useful and the most prominent members of the community may require its remedial influences, as certainly and as frequently, as the most degraded