There are fifteen or twenty there, with no more restraint upon them than there is upon you and me. We rented the farm and it is astonishing the number of persons that are getting well. They go to mill, to market, do work out of doors, take care of everything; and, so far as I am concerned, I am a sort of supernumerary. [Laughter.] They do the work. The provisions on the farm brought nearly $5,000 last year. I think the asylums of the country could work, at least, twice the amount of land they are working, with the amount of hands they now have. I do not wish to condemn the large asylums, but would like to see, for instance, the people of each Congressional district have a good big farm for their insane, and I believe that the care received with outdoor labor would be equal and superior to any hospital care in the country. The chronic insane are as susceptible of cure, if you know how to go about it, as the recent cases, for there is, at least, but a small proportion of the new cases that are cured. It is lamentable the cures are so few, and I attribute this, in a measure, to the fact that the superintendent is not supported, often, as he should be.

Prof. HASKELL, of Colorado: I would like to ask this question: Is it well to encourage insane persons in the ruling idea which has seized upon their minds and powers, or whether it is best to divert them from it? [A voice, "Divert them from it."] I will give an illustration. I visited an asylum, and was met by a fine looking lady, large and portly, and asked if I had ever been in Washington. I was a pastor of a church there then. I said, yes. She asked if I had ever seen President Pierce's wife. I said, yes, as often as once a week, usually on the Sabbath, and that she was a handsome, dignified, cuitured lady, the daughter of President Appleton, and in her many personal accomplishments very much resembled her father. She said, "It is all a mistake, I am Mrs. Pierce, the President's wife," and the superintendent in charge had encouraged her in that conceit, that she was the wife of the chief magistrate of the nation.

Mr. Scorт: I have been strongly impressed with one idea. I have observed this, that our own people are not the persons that seek charity, and I do question, seriously, whether it is public policy to foster that sort of seeking any further than it is absolutely necessary. As it is today, there is not a nation on the face of the globe so well clothed and so well fed as ours; and certainly, in my

mind, a public policy that begets any other influence than that which brought our people to their present proud standing among the nations of the earth is not to be commended. There is a large army of the pauper insane, and I believe many of them can be better treated out of an asylum than in it. I have long held that opinion, and, also, that there are many persons admitted into asylums who are not proper subjects for admission. The court will, every time, as a rule, send the patient to the lunatic asylum ;' the place he ought not to go to, oftentimes; for, with proper management, many of the new cases will recover at home, if at all, quicker than in a lunatic asylum. Many cases of puerperal mania will get well if properly treated at home. I must say that the report read this morning is a well considered and excellent paper in all its details.

Dr. CORBUS, of Illinois: The simple question arises, what plan shall we resort to for relief? The condition of things exists that our committee deplores. In Illinois we cannot build asylums rapidly enough to accommodate the insane. The present plan of building asylums is too expensive; and while we have been particularly liberal in appropriations, it is apparent to us that, with the number of insane in the State on the increase, the time is fast approaching when dissatisfaction will be manifested on the part of the public, in consequence of the increased tax demanded. Now, take twenty per cent. for the class of people that have always been above a pauper condition in our hospitals, and the natural condition of the rest would be that of paupers. I cannot see anything revolting in a case of that kind in sending them from the hospital to the almshouse; neither do I see where political influence would be manifested in the almshouse any more than in the hospital. But if it is necessary to resort to some hospital plan for the care of patients not likely to be benefited in the almshouses, would it not be right to consult persons of broad views in regard to that class? and instead of having the hospital wholly under the control of the medical superintendent, consulting physicians could be employed. Another point; we have some superintendents in asylums who do not discharge their medical duties closely. They have a large farm to manage, and supplies to purchase, and the real fact is, the medical duties are delegated to subordinates, young men, who have had little experience. The whole hospital plan is at fault, and I think there is as much evidence of improvement in the management of almshouses, as in the control of hospitals.

Mr. FOLLETT: The last point made by Dr. Gundry, in regard to the board of directors visiting the various institutions, raised a question in my mind like this: Why is it that we have a body of visitors who do not speak their minds? What is this body accomplishing? They say we should not be politically influenced, but did we hear from one of them when the asylums of Ohio were being controlled by political influence, and this very man was driven from his asylum? Why is it that the State officials of Ohio, and those interested in these matters, do not speak out when political influence is working upon these asylums?

A few days since, I visited Concord, N. H., where learned lawyers and judges had been trying for days the warden of the penitentiary, Mr. J. C. Pillsbury. I said then, not only to the lawyers, but to the warden himself, How can this body of men try you? They are trying themselves, for three of the five members of the council were the committee to whom this warden had to report every three months. I said to him: There is no danger of the Governor and Council finding you guilty. We stand here and know the workings of these things and do not speak, why is it? In Massachusetts, Dr. Allen has just been displaced ; why is it? Simply because he knows too much about these institutions.

The question is, shall we come here year after year and discuss these questions and not speak out like men upon them? I do not care whether the Governor be democratic or republican, let us speak for the right and for the truth. In New Hampshire, the prison warden is of one politics, and his son, the deputy, of another, and neither democrat nor republican dare speak of their politics, and therefore, both sides let them alone.

The following resolutions, drawn up by Mr. Wines, were then put to vote, and passed unanimously:

Resolved, That in the judgment of this Conference the interests of the insane, and of the entire community, require that greater facilities should be made to furnish the inmates of our insane hospitals and asylums with labor and useful occupation; that a larger degree of dependence upon these agencies would diminish the amount of mechanical and medical restraint now advocated and practiced by some superintendents; and that all obstacles to the useful employment of patients arising from the existing plan of architectural construction, should be removed by modifications of this plan, without being unduly influenced by considerations of expense; but the Conference expresses the opinion that the present plan of construction is not only restrictive in its influence, but unnecessarily extravagant.

Resolved, That no provision should be made for a portion of the insane at a cost disproportioned to the ability of the public to make suitable and sufficient provision for all the insane of a State; and that the pecuniary burden of insanity may be reduced by making separate provision for such cases of chronic insanity as do not require the exclusive appliances of a hospital specially designed for the cure of recent or the custody of dangerous and troublesome cases.

Resolved, That no insane person should be retained in any place where he cannot have adequate medical supervision and personal attendance; but that wherever such persons receive suitable attention in almshouses or local asylums, there may in many cases be no objection to their retention in establishments of this class.

Resolved, That the Conference recommends to boards of trustees of insane hospitals a careful consideration of the question whether the interests of the insane would not be promoted by the appointment of consulting medical boards in communities where such boards are practicable.

The Committee on Charitable Organization in Cities next reported, through Rev. Mr. McCulloch, one of its members, the following Paper:

ASSOCIATED CHARITIES.

BY OSCAR C. MCCULLOCH, PASTOR OF PLYMOUTH CHURCH, INDIANAPOLIS.

The names "Associated Charities" and "Charity Organization Society" are given to a movement which attempts to organize into a working body the various existing charitable agencies in our cities. "Everybody," says Arthur Helps, "knows what good results may be obtained by good organization; but it is well to see by the examination of the details how amply men are repaid for even a little expense of thought and time given to the methods of organization." I propose, in this paper, to show the need of the organization of charities in our large cities; to trace the history of the movement to organize them; to explain the underlying principles, and to trace the methods by which it is sought to accomplish the ends desired.

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I. THE NEED OF THE ORGANIZATION

of charities in our cities springs, first, from the wasted energy and effort. Half the labor of the most laborious people in the world is either wholly wasted, or of such an imperfect character as to require much further labor; which evils need not have been if there had existed considerable skill in organization." So says Arthur Helps in his essay on "Organization in Daily Life," and he adds: "There is another great branch of human endeavor, indeed the greatest, in which organization is especially necessary, and that is in the administration of charity."

Few realize the number of agencies that exist for the amelioration of the condition of the poor, or the amount of money spent. Christianity has become "structural," that is, a part of the very. structure of society, working instinctively and unconscious of its origin. Out of this "structural Christianity" flow all the tender feelings and earnest efforts which embody themselves in orphanages, asylums, societies and schools. What are all these but the casting out of evil" in His name?"

"Yet," says Rev. S. H. Gurteen, "in spite of all that is being done in the way of charitable relief, it is found, on all hands: