ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

DIRECTORS OF THE LUNATIC ASYLUM.

To the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky:

The Directors of the Kentucky Lunatic Asylum beg leave to submit the following Annual Report: It is a matter of regret, that we cannot present to you that favorable statement of the condition of the Institution which is so much to be desired. Its primary object is the cure of those afflicted with lunacy. Humanity and a wise economy unite in requiring that all reasonable means for the attainment of the desirable end should be placed within our control. Judicious classification is now recognized as the basis of all proper medical treatment, and this can only be done in properly constructed buildings. Those now erected, are radically defective, and compel us, in a great degree, to do without the aid of that which is deemed essential. Until a remedy is provided, our Asylum cannot claim an equality with the best in our sister States. This matter cannot be presented in a clearer and more satisfactory manner, than it is done in the report of the Medical Superintendent, and we cordially concur in his recommendations and statements. Our buildings, besides being defective in construction, are entirely insufficient, properly to accommodate the patients now occupying them, while more than fifty applicants for admission, from other States, have been refused. Under the present laws we have no power to refuse admission to any one sent by the judgments of the Courts of our own State.

At the last session of the Legislature, the sum of $5,000 was appropriated to enlarge the buildings and receive the increasing number of the insane, and at the time, it was supposed to be sufficient to relieve the pressing necessities of the year. Upon a careful and deliberate examination of the whole matter, the Directors came to the conclusion, that it would be a waste of money to make such additions to the present defective buildings as could be erected with that sum, and an augmentation of evils already great. We determined to defer the matter and await the decision of your honorable body, upon a proposition to appropriate such a sum as would authorize the construction of proper buildings, upon a plan commensurate with the wants and prosperity of this most noble charity. We did not like temporary expedient to remedy the evil for a year. We were not willing to build a house merely to afford shelter for those unfortunate beings, when we were