families of persons resident on the farm, and of two gentlemen who have known it for thirty years, will, I doubt not, be regarded as conclusive on this branch of the subject. The superintendent has already sketched the outline of the plan of the proposed edifices; but before adopting it finally, it has been deemed expedient to lay it before some of the most skilful and experienced superintendents of other asylums, for such improvements as they may be able to suggest. When the plans have thus been carefully revised and matured, they will be placed in the hands of Mr. Walter, the architect of the extension of the Capitol, in order that he may arrange them so as to blend architectural beauty with practical convenience and utility. It is hoped that, in the course of a few weeks, sufficient progress will have been made to justify the advertising for proposals for the execution of the work, to be commenced as early as the season will permit, so that the buildings may be ready for occupancy, if possible, by the first of January, 1854. I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, ALEX. H. H. STUART, Secretary. Hon. DAVID R. ATCHISON, President pro tempore of the Senate. Report in relation to the Insane Asylum, as requested by the Secretary's letter of the 23d December, with accompanying papers, marked A 1, A 2, A 3, A 4, B1 and B 2. WASHINGTON, D. C., December 24, 1852. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 23d instant, requesting me to furnish the information required by an enclosed copy of a resolution of the Senate of the United States, passed December 20, 1852, relating to the establishment of an hospital for the insane in this District, and have hastened respectfully to comply with your request. pur A site for the hospital for the insane of the District of Columbia, and of the army and navy, comprising a farm of about one hundred and ninety acres of land, situated on the southeast side of the Eastern Branch of the Potomac, nearly due south from the Capitol, and about two miles from it in a direct line, has been selected and secured by absolute chase and full payment, in the sum of twenty-seven thousand dollars "under the direction of the President of the United States," according to the provisions of the appropriation, approved August 31, 1852, authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to establish such an institution. Seventy-three thousand dollars, of the one hundred thousand appropriated, remain unexpended. The above appears to be all the information actually demanded by the resolution to which it relates; but on the presumption that it will be satisfactory to the Senate to know the grounds on which it is believed that the site chosen is free from any serious objection, and pre sents an extraordinary combination of peculiar advantages for the seat of the important benevolent institution for which Congress has made provision, I venture to add a few details respecting it. 1. Salubrity. The immediate site of the hospital edifice will be one hundred and forty-one rods from the river, and at an elevation above tide-water about as great as the balustrade about the roof of the Capitol. There are no marshes, sluggish streams, nor standing pools of water, either upon the place or in its near neighborhood; and probably no one, after an attentive examination of the locality, would suspect that malaria is to any material extent engendered upon it. By reference to the weather tables kept at the National Observatory, it appears that the prevailing wind in and about the city during the hot season is southerly. This is also the general impression among residents of the District. The hospital, then, will be situated to the windward of whatever sources of malaria there may be on the Anacostia, or Eastern Branch; and several hundred acres of woodland, about ninety of which are on the government premises, will be interposed between the elevated hospital site and any sources of disease in other directions, which are certainly quite distant when considerable. Theoretically, then, the locality is healthy. Do persons living upon it, or near it, enjoy general good health? Five white families reside at distances from the proposed site of the institution, varying from fifty to one hundred rods, and I cannot learn that more than one death has occurred within the territory they occupy for four years, and that was a child fourteen months old, that died last summer from cholera infantum. These people generally look healthy. The farmer now in charge of the place, with a wife and seven children, has resided upon it six years, and for the four last years about twothirds of the way from the building spot to the river-a situation much lower, as well as nearer the water, than the building spot itself. has had no death in his family during his residence upon this farm, and I learn, both from him and his physician, that the latter has visited his family but seven times for four years. For healthy appearance, this family may challenge any other in any place whatever. He Appended, and marked A, are the certificates, relating to the health of this location and neighborhood, of four highly respectable physicians residing in Washington, who have had most of the practice in all that region, and have enjoyed the best opportunities for forming correct opinions upon the subject to which their testimony relates. Three of them, it will be noticed, addressed J. Carroll Brent, on account of an adjoining place called "Woodstock." The hospital farm, purchased of Thomas Blagden, is situated a short distance northeast of " Woodstock," or Mrs. Brent's, on the "ridge" running from "Colonel Naylor's to itself," spoken of by Dr. Young. Marked B are two other letters upon this subject, which are, I believe, worthy of every confidence. One is from George Watterston, a gentleman of high character, as most senators well know, who was in the habit of frequently visiting his brother-in-law, Dr. Hamilton, during the residence of the latter for many years in the neighborhood of the farm purchased of Mr. Blagden. The other is from Lewis Carbery, another gentleman of high character, who has been for twenty-five years county surveyor of Washington county and of Georgetown, and for twenty-two years a member of the levy court of the District, of which, for the last five years, he has been president. With no extraordinary latitude of expression, this gentleman, in the discharge of his official duties, may be said to have measured with his own steps every yard of ground composing the tract under consideration; and, indeed, of nearly every other tract in the District. Additional testimony of like character might be presented to almost any extent; but presuming that already brought forward will be considered ample, in connexion with the principles and facts first set forth, to place the general salubrity of the hospital site beyond reasonable doubt, I forbear to burden you with more words upon the subject. 2. Accessibility. By Pennsylvania avenue, east Eleventh street, navy yard bridge, and "Piscataway" road, the site is about two and one-half miles from the Capitol. These highways are in excellent order, and above half the distance are made and kept in repair by the government. Five thousand dollars appropriated by Congress at its late session are, it is understood, now being spent in repairing the bridges crossing the Anacostia. The navy yard bridge has been in existence upwards of thirty years, while the population of the city has increased from 13,247 in 1820 to 40,100 in 1850, and the use and need of the bridge has, of course, increased in the same ratio, and there would seem to be no room for reasonable doubt of the continued maintenance of that structure. Building materials, and heavy supplies after the institution is in operation, such as coal, wood, flour, &c., can all be landed from boats upon its own grounds, only one hundred and forty-one rods from the point of use, with just the same facility that such articles can be delivered upon any wharf in the city. It will be perceived, then, that the location is highly accessible every way, and at the same time so situated that it is not likely to be encroached upon by the growth of the city, and so retired that patients will be very little exposed to its teeming population-conditions generally difficult to attain, and at the same time of the greatest importance. 3. Water. There are on the place two springs of good water, reputed to be unfailing, whose locations are convenient to the proposed site for the hospital. Two small branches pass through the place to the river, and the river itself presents a dernier resort not likely to fail. 4. Amount of land.-Every liberally and wisely conducted institution for the care and cure of the insane is exceedingly sensitive in regard to the near proximity of neighbors, especially in considerable numbers, and a majority at least of the old establishments have deeply lamented that more land, at a greater distance from town, was not secured at the outset; though nearly every one has a hundred acres attached to it, and several of them many more. Several of the old institutions are now making definite arrangements to quit their present situations altogether and go further into the country, where they can afford to enjoy more room; while others have bought lands in addition to the original purchases, at greatly advanced rates. In an economical point of view, all provisions consumed in the house and on the farm should be raised upon the premises, except beef, flour, and butter, and groceries. This plan, with or without assistance from patients in the cultivation of the farm, enables them to have the best food at the least cost, as abundant experiment has shown. The farm purchased is under a high state of cultivation, with a large number of choice, well-set young fruit trees upon it, &c. 5. Other points of peculiar adaptation. The proposed site of the hospital buildings is a broad tableau, suitable for an extended series of buildings. Its natural drainage and its facilities for artificial drainage are unsurpassed. The grounds, as they slope away to the north from the upper tableau towards the river, are broken with several ravines, with broad promontories between them, so as to admit of the regular subdivision of the pleasure-grounds by walls that will not be "unpleasantly visible from the building," nor intercept the view of the surrounding country. The view which will be enjoyed by the patients comprises all of the cities of Washington, Georgetown and Alexandria, the heights north of the two former, the Virginia hills on the south, and the Potomac and Eastern Branch for several miles. These features are of immense consequence. This is so well understood among practical persons, that there is no establishment in the country that has not, in some one or more of its published documents, attempted to laud the attractive beauty of the landscape about it. The moral treatment of the insane, with reference to their cure, consists mainly in eliciting an exercise of the attention with things rational, agreeable, and foreign to the subject of delusion; and the more constant and absorbing is such exercise, the more rapid and effectual will be the recovery; but many unbroken hours must elapse each day, during which it is on every account impracticable to make any direct active effort to engage and Occupy the patients' minds. Now, nothing gratifies the taste, and spontaneously enlists the attention, of so large a class of persons, as combinations of beautiful natural scenery, varied and enriched by the hand of man; and it may be asserted with much confidence, that the expenditure of a thousand dollars each year, directed to the single object of promoting the healthy mental occupation of one hundred insane persons, with either amusements or labor, would not be so effectual in recalling reason to its throne, as will the grand panorama of nature and of art, which the peculiar position of the site chosen so happily commands. The shifting incidents of the navigation of the Potomac, the flight of the railroad cars to and from the city, the operations at the navy yard, &c., will continually renew and vary the interest of the scene. About ninety acres of the farm are in high and broken woodland, through which some five miles of winding roads have been made by the late proprietor, that will afford highly agreeable, healthful, and entirely private pleasure walks for the patients during the warm season. The institution itself will be one of the most conspicuous ornaments of the District, and will be visible to more people, and from more points, than any other structure, excepting, perhaps, the Capitol, and the Washington Monument when completed. 6. Future operations. Such a plan of an institution is about to be submitted to you for the approval of the President and yourself, as the means at your command will build and fit up, and as will be ample to accommodate the insane now supported by government, both from civil life and from the army and navy. This plan will be susceptible of receiving any additions future necessity may require. I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant. C. H. NICHOLS, Superintendent Hospital for the Insane. Hon. ALEX H. H. STUART, A 1. WASHINGTON CITY, December 2, 1852. DEAR SIR: Some days since I received a note from you, asking my opinion as to the healthfulness of the region in which the farm lies now owned by Mrs. Wm. Brent-formerly by Mr. Mosher and Dr. Hamilton. I have known the locality familiarly, as a practitioner of medicine, for more than twenty years; have always regarded it as a healthy region, and, in fact, never saw but one case of severe bilious or misasmatic fever on it; and that one, Dr. Hamilton believed was engendered some miles below, in Prince George's county, Maryland. The ridge on which this farm stands, from Colonel Naylor's farm to itself, I have always regarded as remarkably healthy for a southern climate. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. CARROLL BRENT, Esq., Washington, D. C. N. YOUNG. A 2. WASHINGTON, November 20, 1852. DEAR SIR: In a conversation with you a few days since, you expressed a desire to have my opinion relative to the salubrity of "Woodstock" and its vicinity. As regards" Woodstock," I can speak confidently of its immunity from disease, and freedom from causes that produce disease. I feel assured that it will compare favorably with any other portion of the District south and east of the Anacostia in this particular, (health.) Of its vicinage my experience has been but limited; but from my own observation of its locality, &c., and conversation with the practitioners of medicine engaged and residing in the neighborhood, I am induced to believe that it might challenge any other section of this region to produce its superior in point of salubrity. Respectfully, your obedient servant, JOHN C. BRENT, Esq. J. ELIOT. |