entirely separate from the contaminating influences of an infirmary, that there is but little use of talking about arrangements for them in new infirmary-buildings.

MODEL MANAGEMENT.

Allow me to say in conclusion, that, after all is said and done in regard to infirmary-buildings, the highest need of these structures is not so much model plans as model management. We may attain perfection in structure, but, if we fail to superadd to it a competent administration, we shall have made a very unsatisfactory expenditure of public money. A model building and a model administrator should go together; but, if we are to have but one of these requirements, let us have a model administrator.

It is strange that this requirement is so rarely recognized; and yet, strange as it may seem, the selection of an infirmary superintendent is usually based much more upon his capacity to manage horses and cattle, and make the farm productive, than it is upon his capacity to manage men and women, so as to encourage the good and reform the bad, and to disburse the bounty of the public with a wise humanity and a wise economy. There cannot be a stronger illustration of an economy "that saves at the spigot, and wastes at the bung," than to employ a cheap infirmary superintendent simply because he is cheap.

There are but few positions anywhere that require a larger combination of the best qualities of head and heart than this; and, when found, it is very certain it cannot be had at the wages of an ordinary day-laborer. Undoubtedly great extravagance has been perpetrated in many of our public institutions; but the loss of money arising therefrom is a mere bagatelle compared with the wastage resulting from parsimony in the employment of those who manage those institutions. An incompetent superintendent is dear at the smallest salary, and a competent man is cheap at the highest. Therefore, whilst we urge improvement in infirmarybuildings, let us urge, with a double emphasis, improvement in infirmary superintendence.

The golden rule of economy for all of our public institutions should be, Retrenchment in construction, liberality in supervision.

THE HIGHEST NEED.

And yet, after all attainments possible in the direction of convenience in construction and economy in management, there is

still an additional requirement, which, to my mind, is more important than either; and that is an elevated moral and religious tone in these institutions. The public care of the poor, and of all other dependent classes, is an outgrowth of Christianity as certainly as an oak is the outgrowth of an acorn; and it is only in the line of their origin and growth that our benevolent institutions can evolve their largest attainments. Like the cedars of Lebanon, these institutions are seedlings from Judæan soil, and have their life and being in the teachings and the philosophy of the Divine Nazarene. Outside of Christianity there has never been, through all the ages, any general public provision for dependents through poverty and disease; and it is only the revelation of the Great Teacher as to the higher nature of man, which makes him a child of the infinite, that causes provision for them to-day. To administer this bounty most wisely by one who does not recognize its origin, seems preposterous; and therefore it seems to me that an infirmary superintendent who cannot see in Lazarus a possible superiority to Dives, and cannot realize that the poor and the rich alike are the children of a common Father, and heirs of an eternal destiny, is not so amply equipped for his position as he ought to be, and must necessarily fall short of its highest requirements. I believe, therefore, I am not overestimating a fact in suggesting that the highest essential even in an infirmary-building is moral rather than physical, — spiritual rather than material. Without this divine afflatus to crown the whole, our benevolent institutions will be as the Apostle Paul depicted himself, viz., - •

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

"And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

"And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up;

"Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

"Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

"Beareth all things, believeth all things, endureth all things.

"And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."

And so in our model infirmary-building we have convenience of construction, a cultured management, and that divine love of humanity indicated by the obsolete definition of that noble word "charity;"" these three, but the greatest of these is charity."

III. BUILDINGS FOR THE CRIMINAL INSANE.

BY WALTER CHANNING, M.D., BOSTON, FORMERLY OF THE ASYLUM FOR INSANE CRIMINALS AT AUBURN, N.Y., AND OF THE STATE LUNATIC HOSPITAL AT DANVERS, MASS.

During the last thirty years the evil of associating and treating insane criminals along with the ordinary insane has been a subject of constant and growing public interest, giving rise to much discussion.

Perhaps on no point connected with the treatment of the insane, has the opinion of insane-hospital authorities been more unanimous than this. This opinion has also been largely shared by prison officials, and others conversant with the peculiarities of the insane criminal. Notwithstanding this unanimity of opinion, as yet the Broadmoor Asylum for Criminals in England, and the State Asylum for Insane Criminals in Auburn, N.Y., are the only institutions that exist, apart from prisons, for this class alone.

It is my opinion that insane criminals should be provided for in buildings erected exclusively for them, as soon as possible; and it will be my object in this paper to show, first, Why such separation is necessary, and, second, How it may best be carried out.

In writing on the subject of insanity in criminals, we find two classes, which, to avoid confusion, we will define, and give a name to, before proceeding further. One of them is that class of persons who committed a crime when sane, and, being convicted, became insane during confinement in prison. This class I will call the convicted insane. The other class is composed of those persons who were insane at the time of the committal of the crime, or while under indictment became so, and hence have not been tried. Much difficulty has been experienced in settling on a name for the latter class; for it is said insanity is not a crime, the subject of it is not responsible for his acts, and it is therefore an injustice to the insane committer of a crime, to stigmatize him by the use of the word criminal in connection with his disease. Granting

the abstract justice of such a construction, the effect of the act on society remains the same; it must still be regarded as an offence against one of its laws, and it must ever therefore be denominated a crime. To modify the name applied to this second class, I propose to speak of them as the unconvicted insane, instead of as "the criminal insane,' ""insane criminals,' "" criminal lunatics," &c. In speaking of the two classes collectively, I shall use the term, insane criminals.

It is a well-known fact, that criminals form a distinct class, mentally, physically, and socially, by themselves. They inherit criminal tastes, as other classes inherit legal or business tastes. "Moral depravity is transmitted through families." Not only are mental weaknesses transmitted, but physical as well. The criminal is the subject of epilepsy, of insanity, of syphilis, and various other physical deficiencies. With this bad heredity he is, from his first entrance into the world, exposed to the worst of influences. In infancy these amount simply to bad hygienic surroundings, poor food, and insufficient care; but, as his mind begins to develop, vice, in its various forms, is the only example set up for him to follow. As a result of this bad environment, combined with great intellectual and moral weakness, we find a character strongly inclined to evil. The impulses of the criminal are bad rather than good; but, being unconscious of this, he yields constantly to them, and in time, therefore, his standard of right and wrong becomes so distorted, that he cannot understandingly distinguish one from the other.

After serving a sufficiently long apprenticeship, the criminal graduates in vice, and is ready for such acts of wickedness as his temperament and education have made him proficient in. These acts are performed with a regularity and method characteristic of ordinary business enterprises. The following illustration shows with what persistency crime is pursued as a business, in spite of the punishment to which the offenders have been subjected: Five hundred and seventy-six criminals were committed to the Scotch prisons 2,874 times; and out of 904 female convicts no less than 440, after long sentences and within eleven years, returned again to prison. Confinement in prison is a risk which is thought of and calculated on by the criminal, very much as the dangers

1 J. Bruce Thompson: "Nature of Crime," Journal of Mental Science, 1870.

2 Figures compiled by J. Bruce Thompson, medical officer to the General Prison, Perth, Scotland.

of the sea are estimated by the sailor: both are willing to run the risk.

When apprehended, however, and sentenced to prison, the criminal rebels at what he regards as unjust treatment. With his peculiar nervous organization, — irritable, impulsive, yielding to any passing caprice or passion, physically impaired, in many cases, by disease and prolonged dissipation, and totally unable to discriminate between right and wrong, he is sentenced to prison for what was to him a frequent act, and not a crime. He cannot understand that he is guilty; and imprisonment is only a just atonement, because, as has been stated by Thompson, "the moral insensibility of criminals is marked by the apparent absence of remorse in high-class criminals, murderers, homicides, infanticides, &c. Of from four to five hundred murderers, only three have ever been known to feel remorse for the heinous crimes of which they have been found guilty." Despine made a somewhat similar statement when he said "that the moral sense was utterly and invariably absent in criminals who committed deeds in cold blood." Entering prison with this blunted moral perception, a feeble mind, and a poor physique, the criminal is peculiarly sensitive to the material nature of his surroundings. His moral condition is usually taken no notice of, however, by the prison-officer, who cuts his hair, puts on a prison-suit, and in other ways quickly changes him into the typical prison-convict. Having thus lost his identity as a member of the outside world, he is put to work at what is uncongenial to him. He is given poor food often, sleeps in a cramped and frequently badly-ventilated cell, and, worst of all, is cut off from all counsel, sympathy, and encouragement. He takes but little interest in his work; neglects it if possible, or performs it in a stupid, dogged manner. He does not endeavor to better his surroundings, but broods over his wrongs. As a consequence of this state of feeling, he sinks into a torpor from which he is not easily roused.

Thus monotonously and wearily pass the days of his imprisonment. His feeble power of reasoning is gradually overcome by the strength of his wayward and imbittered thoughts. He loses appetite, and passes sleepless nights. Often he is so absorbed in his own feelings, that he cannot be made to work. This conduct is sometimes supposed by the prison-officials to be wanton rebelliousness, and the convict is punished for disobedience. This, however, produces but little effect; he persists in the same course