Annual report of the trustees of the New-York State Asylum for Idiots : transmitted to the Legislature, February 9, 1852.

  • New York State Asylum for Idiots
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the trustees of the New-York State Asylum for Idiots : transmitted to the Legislature, February 9, 1852. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The expenses incurred in what may be called the capital of the asylum, the preparation of the building, of the introduction of water, and for furniture and apparatus, and such articles as are not in the class of annual expenses, have been about $3,500. The current expenses for subsistence, salaries,fuel, labor,&c., already incurred, are about $1,725; many of these are on hand for future consumption. The balance of the appropriation of $6,000 for the current year, with the amount received and to be received from pay pupils, amounting to about $1,500, will probably defray all the expenses of the year. Should there be any deficiency, the surplus of the appropriation for the next year will be more than sufficient to meet it, and unless the Legislature direct that a larger number of State pupils shall be received, the balance of the appropriation for the next year will be abundant for all its expenses, as the expenditures for permanent purposes will have been made. Ten additional State pupils, however, may be ac¬ commodated in the present building, which will not increase the annual expense more than $1,500. A greater number could not be received without excluding pay pupils who contribute very much to the support of the asylum, and whose claims upon our sympathies are as strong as those of the other class, and for whose education no other similar institution exists in our State. So far as the trustees have had the opportunity of forming an opinion from the information they have acquired on the subject, generally, and particularly from their observation of the pupils in the asylum during the time they have been there, they enter¬ tain no doubt that in a large majority of cases, idiots may be so trained and instructed as to render them useful to themselves and fitted to learn some of the ordinary trades, or to engage in agriculture. Their minds and souls can be developed, so that they may become responsible beings, and be made acquainted with their relations to a Creator and a future state; and in all cases, almost without exception, they can be made cleanly and neat in their personal habits, and enjoy many of the comforts of life, while they will cease to be regarded as incumbrances and annoyances to the familes in which they reside. The report of the Superintendent, Dr. Wilbur, to the trustees, which accompanies this communication, presents such full, clear and able views of
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