BENJAMIN BROWN, Esq., DIRECTORS. ISAAC RAY, M. D., SUPERINTENDENT AND PHYSICIAN. CHAUNCEY BOOTH, JR., M. D., MR. JOSHUA S. TURNER, STEWARD. MRS. BETSEY BARTLETT, MATRON. REPORT. To the Governor and Council of the State of Maine: In the discharge of one of the duties assigned them, the Directors of the Maine Insane Hospital have the satisfaction to REPORT: That its condition and prospects have undergone an improvement quite beyond what they were prepared to expect at the commencement of the year. The number of patients for the last six months has been greater than at any former period, ranging from sixty five to seventy three; whereas, at the corresponding period of last year, the average number was but sixty one and five sixths, an increase which cannot but be regarded as strongly indicating that the character and objects of the hospital are becoming better understood, and its usefulness more highly appreciated. That such would be the ultimate result, and that an institution, established at so much expense, and consecrated to the most beneficent objects, would not long, in this intelligent community, be suffered to languish for want of patronage, we have always believed. But it is peculiarly gratifying to witness, at so early a period, unequivocal evidence of its approximating to that favor with the community to which it is eminently entitled. That it is, in fact, ably and faithfully conducted, so as to merit the confidence reposed-that means medical and moral are judiciously employed with the inmates, with reference to their improvement and restoration-that they are well provided for, and treated with all that kindness and tenderness which their miserable condition calls for, and which most of them have heretofore been strangers to, the directors feel themselves fully authorized to attest. The |