Annual report of the managers of the State Lunatic Asylum : made to the Legislature January 18, 1844 / New York State Lunatic Asylum at Utica.
- New York (State). State Lunatic Asylum
- Date:
- 1844
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Annual report of the managers of the State Lunatic Asylum : made to the Legislature January 18, 1844 / New York State Lunatic Asylum at Utica. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![established schools, two for the men and one for the women, and our highest expectations of good results have been more than realized. Among our attendants and convalescent patients are those accustomed to teach. These take charge of the schools. They commence at ten and two, and continue from one to two hours. The best of order pre¬ vails. The patients read in rotation, and sometimes at once, spell, re¬ cite pieces they have committed to memory, attend to arithmetic, his¬ tory and geography, assisted by maps and black boards. Many attend to writing and some have here first learned to write. We have no more beautiful sight to present than our school rooms, where the pa¬ tients may be seen engaged in their studies with all the sobriety and ardor usually seen in other schools. The school is beneficial, especially to the convalescent—those that are melancholy—and to those who appear to be losing their mental powers and sinking into a demented condition. Those who have recovered, but continue with us for fear of a re¬ lapse, and to test the permanency of their recovery, derive both pleasure and profit from attending. Those that are melancholy and depressed are beguiled from their sorrows, and for a while made to forget them, and thus the wray is often prepared for their restoration. Those who appear to be losing their mental powers are much bene¬ fited by this daily and regular exercise of their minds ; their memo¬ ries improve, and they become more active and cheerful. The want of proper mental occupation, according to our observation, is one of the most pressing wants of lunatic asylums. Notwithstand¬ ing amusements and labor many are constantly disposed to sit still, ab¬ sorbed in their own thoughts and delusions, and thus continually be¬ coming worse. Schools, we believe, will do much towards remedying the evil to which we allude, and the expense attending them is but trifling. RELIGIOUS WORSHIP. In the fourth story of the centre building is a spacious and beautiful Chapel, thirty-six by ninety-three feet, to which the access is easy from all parts of the house. It was solemnly dedicated to Almighty God the 12th of July. The Rev. Dr. Nott, of Schenectady, preached [Assembly, No. 21.] 7](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30317472_0051.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
