264 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Feb. 5,

ent buildings, offered the site for sale at a price which would
have proved a good investment, but the purchase was declined
by the holders of the adjacent property. This only objection
removed, we hesitate not to report, that your honorable body
could not find a more eligible position for the important ben-
efaction which demands our fostering aid.

The buildings have progressed as rapidly as the limited
appropriations would admit. We found every thing as stated
in the report of the architect, the property being all well pro-
tected. The cold weather stopped progress, just as the ap-
propriation was nearly exhausted. It is due to the Commis-
sioners to say that they have exercised a most wise and pru-
dent discretion in the use of the money given into their hands.
It now remains for you to decide when the work shall be re-
sumed, and how rapidly it shall advance to completion.

We have only one public institution which provides the
semblance of suitable accommodation for the Insane: viz. the
Maryland Hospital. The report of the Visitors is before you,
and it emphatically declares that the Hospital is Entirely inad-
equate to the necessity. To enlarge that building would be
injudicious economy. The location is not suitable, the plan
altogether unappropriate.

By the census of 1850, there were in Maryland 937 insane
and idiotic persons—752 white, 92 free colored, and 93 slaves,
(521 males, 416 females.) Of these, 657 were born among us,
83 natives of other States and 69 born in foreign lands.

What proportion of this large aggregate is a charge upon
the General Assembly, we are unable to say, but this much is
certain, that the proportion is constantly increasing for the
want of proper remedial measures. Many of these unfortu-
nate beings are confined in the county Almshouses, and ren-
dered by imperfect medical treatment and injudicious disci-
pline, hopelessly insane, and thus a permanent burden upon
the State, who, by timely treatment in a well appointed Asy-
lum might have been restored to sanity and the performance
of the duties of citizenship.

It is every year being more clearly demonstrated that insan-
ity is curable, in fact yields to prompt measures, while it is
aggravated by delay and of times confirmed by the inadequate
provision made by the guardians of the public weal. The
leading Reviews, both in the United States and Europe,
abound with valuable articles upon this topic, and the result
of careful statistical comparison is, that while under the old
system, only 15 per centum of cases were cured; now, under
new treatment, in properly arranged asylums, 75 per centum
are cured. A fact at which the heart of the philanthrophist
must leap for joy, and which appeals to the Legislature of